1 the Complete Obama Timeline February 2016 on February 1

The Complete Obama Timeline

February 2016

On February 1, 2016 more than $100 billion in assets is released to Iran. (The White House had claimed it would be only $50 billion. One or both of the two parties is lying.) [87369, 87380, 87381, 87405]

The Sun reports that Great Britain “is home to more than 3 million Muslims for the first time ever with more than half born outside the UK, according to new figures. Soaring immigration and sky high birth rates have seen the number in the country double in a little over a decade. Some parts of London are now almost 50 per cent Islamic, according to analysis from the Office for National Statistics. If current trends continue the areas could become majority Muslim within ten years. …Followers of Islam now make up one in every 20 people within the country.” (The process is “birth jihad” or “stealth jihad.” Muslims take over an area first via immigration, both legal and illegal, and they then dominate the culture as a result of their phenomenal birth rates— all the while collecting welfare benefits funded by taxpayers who fear being shamed as “Islamophobes” if they object. Parts of Europe are being destroyed in the process.) [87371, 87372]

Workers at a refugee center in Sweden are banned from holding a memorial service for co- worker Alexandra Mezher, who was killed by a migrant, in order to “secure the well-being of the children.” (Translation: “We do not want to upset the Muslim refugees or let them think killing Swedes is not an acceptable pastime.”) [87427, 87429]

CNN reports that leftist billionaire George Soros has donated $6 million to Hillary Clinton’s political action committee (PAC). (Soros money helped Obama significantly in 2008.) [87324]

On Morning Joe , Bloomberg Politics managing editor Mark Halperin says there are “more problems with [Hillary Clinton’s] emails, more questions about how it was handled. Look, the legal calendar, we don’t know what that is. We know the political calendar. Bernie Sanders announced yesterday he’s raised $20 million this month. He’s forced Secretary Clinton to agree to more debates into the spring. So Bernie Sanders, even if he loses here tonight can go forward with lots of money, with debates on the schedule, and see, are there developments in the legal front that allow him to start to win even after tonight if he doesn’t win here?” Joe Scarborough adds, “Everybody in the government, everybody in the media, everybody that runs anything is talking about how advanced this investigation [of Clinton] is, and nobody’s telling the American people about it. So, I had an executive in another network ask, ‘Is it safe to talk about it now?’ So we talked about it. And then that afternoon… explosive revelations came out, and there are more [to come].” [87355]

DailyCaller.com reports, “Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, refused to speak to investigators with the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General about her handling of a 2012 public records request for information about Clinton’s private email addresses that the agency falsely denied.” [87400]

ChicagoBusiness.com reports, “The Giannoulias family, which collected tens of millions in dividends just prior to the collapse of their Broadway Bank in Chicago, appear to have gotten off relatively lightly in a newly released settlement with federal bank regulators over losses at the company. Former officers and directors of Broadway Bank, including former CEO Demetris Giannoulias and his brother George Giannoulias, paid $5 million under a Nov. 18 settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. …The 2010 failure of Broadway Bank came in the middle of a hotly contested election for …Obama’s old Senate seat. Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, brother to Demetris and George and once an executive at Broadway, lost to Republican Mark Kirk. [Obama endorsed Giannoulias, despite the bank’s mob ties.] The bank’s failure, coupled with the fact that the family had taken $30 million in dividends in 2007 and 2008 from the bank as signs of financial trouble were emerging, played a part in Giannoulias’ defeat at the polls.” (The bank failed largely because of subprime loans.) [87353]

White House press secretary Josh Earnest tells reporters he can’t comment on Hillary Clinton’s emails because “I haven’t seen any of them.” (This is the same Josh Earnest who said on January 29, “[B]ased on what we know from the Department of Justice” Clinton will not be indicted.’) [87238, 87251, 87282, 87316, 87354]

At FoxNews.com Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report, “Highly classified Hillary Clinton emails that the intelligence community and State Department recently deemed too damaging to national security to release contain ‘operational intelligence’—and their presence on the unsecure, personal email system jeopardized ‘sources, methods and lives,’ a U.S. government official who has reviewed the documents told Fox News. The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and was limited in discussing the contents because of their highly classified nature, was referring to the 22 ‘TOP SECRET’ emails that the State Department announced Friday it could not release in any form, even with entire sections redacted. …The official emphasized that the ‘TOP SECRET’ documents were sent over an extended period of time— from shortly after the server’s 2009 installation until early 2013 when Clinton stepped down as secretary of state.” [87356, 87357]

Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-FL) observes, “There is no way that someone, a senior government official who has been handling classified information for a good chunk of their adult life, could not have known that this information ought to be classified, whether it was marked or not. Anyone with the capacity to read and an understanding of American national security, an 8th grade reading level or above, would understand that the release of this information or the potential breach of a non-secure system presented risk to American national security. Anytime our national security team determines that there's a potential breach, that is information that might potentially have fallen into the hands of the Iranians, or the Russians, or the Chinese, or just hackers, that they begin to operate in a manner that assumes that information has in fact gotten out.” [87356, 87357]

The national debt reaches $19 trillion.

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban tells Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, “I’ll consider [voting for] anybody but Ted Cruz. …People are tired of labels. That’s one of the reasons I don’t like Ted Cruz. Everything he says is defined by some sort of label.” (In addition, Cruz is a flip-flopper

2 when it is convenient for his political career. In an August 11, 2011 he said he supported the “anchor baby” interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. In an August 22, 2015 interview he stated he was opposed.) [87389, 87567, 87570]

The Jeb Bush campaign allegedly offers people $25 per hour to be “seat fillers” for his Des Moines, Iowa rally. The Bush campaign issues a denial and suggests the flyer is a “dirty trick” from the Marco Rubio campaign. [87358, 87359]

Researcher Gary Wilmott calls KABC 790 to state that Ted Cruz cannot legally serve as president because he is not a natural born citizen. Talk show host Peter Tilden ridicules Wilmott and asks why if Cruz is ineligible no one knows about it. Wilmott tries to explain that the media is doing its best to cover up the truth. Tilden then cuts off Wilmott—thereby substantiating the claim that the media refuses to discuss the issue. [87471, 87700]

At 7:00 pm, just as Iowa caucus voting starts, Ted Cruz sends a message: “CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa. Make sure to tell all of your peers at the caucus [who are] supporting Carson that they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the Long haul: TED CRUZ!” (Cruz is lying. CNN did not report that Carson is pulling out of the race; it reported only that he was going to Florida before heading to New Hampshire and South Carolina to campaign). [87481, 87598]

Cruz also “creatively extends” the CNN report, claiming there would be a big announcement from the Carson campaign late in the week—suggesting the announcement would be Carson dropping out of the race. (Cruz later blames CNN, but it was not CNN that invented the “big announcement” addition to the false story.) [87481]

The Cruz campaign expands on the dirty trick, stationing operatives outside caucus locations to tell voters Ben Carson has dropped out of the race and encouraging them to vote for Cruz. (Spreading a lie for the sake of personal gain is apparently one of Cruz’s evangelical values.) Carson later tells Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, “Bill, here’s the issue. A culture exists within the Cruz camp that would allow people to take advantage of a situation like this in a very dishonest way. Isn’t this the same thing we see with the Obama administration? The IRS Scandal? No responsibility. Look and see what the Cruz camp will do about those individuals who inappropriately disseminated this information knowing that the caucuses were not over. They were awfully anxious to get it out there, weren’t they?” [87360, 87361, 87362, 87418, 87421, 87430]

Congressman Steve King (R-IA), a Cruz supporter, shamelessly tweets, “Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.” (King’s tweet comes almost one-half hour after the Carson campaign issued a statement declaring the Cruz rumor to be false. King lied anyway.) [87421, 87422, 87481]

Republican strategist Karl Rove later states, “Senator Cruz in his initial explanation about this said, ‘we were sending it to our team,’ leaving the implication, I suspect, to most viewers, that this had to do with sending it out to staff members. No, no, no… They sent this to their nearly 1,500 precinct captains. There are 1,500 precincts in the state. And they sent this message from

Spence Roberts [Rogers]. Now why does that matter. Now the gap between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is 6,239 votes. There are 1,500 precincts. Do the math… If this [false] message… cost Carson four votes per precinct to switch to Cruz, then Cruz beats Trump. If he doesn’t switch four, then he loses.” [87481, 87482]

Marco Rubio’s campaign does not have clean hands on the issue. It also pushed the false narrative that Carson was dropping out of the race. [87456]

Cruz supporters later make the argument that Carson would not have won anyway. Of course, it is impossible to know what the results would have been had Cruz not made the false statement about Carson. Even if the dirty trick cost Carson 500 votes and did not impact the outcome, that is irrelevant—a shameless ineffective tactic is no more defensible than a shameless effective tactic. (If a man robs a bank he is not absolved of the crime simply because he was able to get away with only $500 and not the $50,000 he had hoped for. He goes to jail either way.)

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders essentially come to a draw in the Iowa caucuses. Clinton allegedly wins 49.8 percent of the vote; Sanders wins 49.5 percent—with about five percent of the votes not counted. Martin O’Malley, with less than one percent, suspends his campaign. (Six precincts end in a Clinton-Sanders tie. A coin flip gives Clinton victories in all six. Some suspect that Sanders actually received more votes than Clinton, but the bizarre Democrat caucus process in Iowa benefited Clinton.) [87363, 87365, 87374, 87375, 87512, 87590, 87602]

Clinton gives a victory speech even before the vote counting has been completed. (Her operatives are likely working hard to make sure an additional box of missing ballots is suddenly “found.”) [87383, 87450]

On the GOP side, voter turnout exceeds 180,000. Ted Cruz takes first place with 27.65 percent, followed by Donald Trump (24.31), Marco Rubio (23.10), Ben Carson (9.31), Rand Paul (4.54), Jeb Bush (2.80), Carly Fiorina (1.86), John Kasich (1.86), Mike Huckabee (1.79), Chris Christie (1.76), and Rick Santorum (0.95). Cruz and Trump each gain more votes than any other candidate in Iowa caucus history. Cruz captures about 33 percent of the white evangelical vote, to Trump’s 21 percent and Rubio’s 21 percent. [87363, 87364, 87376, 87452]

Media pundits (who wrongly predicted a Trump win if voter turnout exceeded 150,000) quickly pounce on Trump and call him a loser, but the truth is that he never expected to win Iowa because of the strong evangelical vote. That Cruz took first place may mean little, because he will not have the advantage of the religious vote in every state. Trump fell to second place because he lost supporters to Marco Rubio. Although Rubio finished third, he is arguably the winner in the “big picture” because he—not Cruz—may be the candidate voters switch to if Trump falters. The reality is that Rubio is likeable and Cruz is not, and personality matters in elections. As the weeks pass, the contest may be between Trump and Rubio. Further, Cruz’s success comes with a downside: media scrutiny.

It is worth noting that no state has a greater percentage of evangelical voters than Iowa. That is why Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum fizzled after first-place finishes in Iowa in 2008 and 2012. At a January 31 rally in Iowa City, Cruz asked his supporters to “pray every day until

4 election day,” call on God to “awaken the body of Christ that we might pull back from the abyss,” and “commit today every day from now to election day to lift this country up in prayer.” Statements like that work in Iowa, but will work almost nowhere else. That is not to suggest that America is not a religious nation, but in most states the voters do not like candidates who use their religion to sway voters—or who shove religion down their throats. (It is also worth noting that, since 1952, 13 winners of the New Hampshire primary and three second-place finishers went on to win the presidency. Only one person, Bill Clinton, has lost both in Iowa and in New Hampshire and then gone on to win the presidency.) [87403, 87404, 87406, 87431]

As the media produces more stories about Cruz, voters will learn (among other things) that his wife works for Goldman Sachs and helped the Council on Foreign Relations develop one of its New World Order reports. That will not sit well with conservative voters who have been led to believe that Cruz is “squeaky clean.” As the evidence against him piles up, Cruz will label everything lies. Eventually, however, the voters will come to believe it is he who is lying. [87428]

Cruz is not an “evangelical” in the Iowa sense. Like his father, a preacher who is director of something he calls the “Purifying Fire International,” Cruz is a radical “dominionist.” Other Dominionists are former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and former Texas governor Rick Perry.) According to Wikipedia, Dominion theology “is a theory from the field of Sociology which describes a theocratic ideology which seeks to implement a nation governed by conservative Christians ruling over society based on an understanding of biblical law.” Political Research Associates defines Dominionism as follows: “The theocratic idea that regardless of theological view or eschatological timetable, heterosexual Christian men are called by God to exercise dominion over secular society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.” [87431, 87432, 87876, 87992, 88214]

At OpEdNews.com former foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize recipient Chris Hedges wrote in October 2013, “This ideology calls on anointed ‘Christian’ leaders to take over the state and make the goals and laws of the nation ‘biblical.’ It seeks to reduce government to organizing little more than defense, internal security and the protection of property rights. It fuses with the Christian religion the iconography and language of American imperialism and nationalism, along with the cruelest aspects of corporate capitalism. The intellectual and moral hollowness of the ideology, its flagrant distortion and misuse of the Bible, the contradictions that abound within it—its leaders champion small government and a large military, as if the military is not part of government—and its laughable pseudo-science are impervious to reason and fact. And that is why the movement is dangerous.” [87434]

“The cult of masculinity, as in all fascist movements, pervades the ideology of the Christian right. The movement uses religion to sanctify military and heroic ‘virtues,’ glorify blind obedience and order over reason and conscience, and pander to the euphoria of collective emotions. Feminism and homosexuality, believers are told, have rendered the American male physically and spiritually impotent. Jesus, for the Christian right, is a man of action, casting out demons, battling the Antichrist, attacking hypocrites and ultimately slaying nonbelievers. …Dominionists believe they are engaged in an epic battle against the forces of Satan. They live in a binary world of black and white. They feel they are victims, surrounded by sinister groups

5 bent on their destruction. They have anointed themselves as agents of God who alone know God’s will.” [87434, 87876]

The late Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) once warned of the far “religious right,” of which Dominionism is a part, “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” On the floor of the Senate in 1981 Goldwater said, “The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent.” Evangelist Billy Graham once said, “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” [88142, 88143]

Arguably, Trump did well by finishing second in a state in which he did not expect to win, where he had virtually no “ground game,” and where he spent little money on anything but “Make America Great Again” baseball caps. (Cruz had 12,000 volunteers and more than 150 ministers working on his behalf.) Trump (who had only 12 staffers in Iowa) knew he would lose the religious vote to Cruz, and chose not to spend a fortune in a state which has few convention delegates—and whose delegates are divided proportionally. (That is, Trump will get some Iowa convention delegates despite his second-place finish, probably seven to Cruz’s eight.) It is the winner-take-all states where it makes more sense to spend money on campaign operations. (In some states the candidate who finished in first place receives all of the state’s delegates for the national convention.) [87373, 87417]

Some argue that Trump erred in criticizing Ben Carson because they may have switched to Ted Cruz rather than Trump. [87399]

Cruz tells his supporters, “Tonight is a victory for the grassroots. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa, and all across this great nation. Tonight the state of Iowa has spoken. Iowa has sent notice that the Republican nominee and the next President of the United States will not be chosen by the media; will not be chosen by the Washington establishment; will not be chosen by the lobbyists. But will be chosen by the most incredible powerful force where all sovereignty resides in our nation by ‘We the People,’ the American people.” (Cruz’s long, disjointed victory speech may leave some people wondering why they voted for him. Members of a CNN focus group are not impressed, especially when he quotes scripture. One participant says, “I thought he was pandering to the crowd. He seemed to say the same thing over and over… just to get the crowd to believe that’s what he really thought.”) [87373, 87392, 87411]

Donald Trump delivers a brief, gracious concession speech. [87393]

Third-place finisher Marco Rubio delivers a speech in which he sounds as if he finished in first place. [87394, 87435]

Mike Huckabee suspends his campaign. [87366]

Ted Cruz receives the “kiss of death” from political strategist Dick Morris, who says on Newsmax.tv, “Cruz is very likely to win this whole thing. He’s going to go into New Hampshire with a great deal of momentum coming from Iowa, and [Donald] Trump has been proven fallible. He’s been proven not immortal, and I think it’s going to be a very tight three-way race in New Hampshire.” (Morris has an incomparably bad track record when it comes to predictions. In addition, few expected Trump to win in Iowa because of the powerful evangelical vote.) [87401]

Pollster Matt Towery disagrees, saying, “I think Trump still has the edge in New Hampshire. South Carolina and the SEC Primary are going to decide who is going to get to the big dance, and the big dance will be Florida.” If Marco Rubio does not gain momentum, “Donald Trump, who has been leading in these Southern states and Florida, would go on to get the nomination. But I don’t think that Cruz right now is still in it. He’s got a long way to go because New Hampshire is going to be sort of cold water on him, I expect.” (The SEC primaries and caucuses on March 1 will be in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine follows on March 5.) [87401, 87402, 87914]

Ann Coulter tweets, “Trump is the leading GOP vote-getter tonight, among natural-born- American candidates.” [87407]

Many in the mainstream media call Ted Cruz’s first-place finish irrelevant, Donald Trump’s second-place finish a loss, and Marco Rubio’s third-place finish a massive victory. (In other words, the “establishment” is pushing Rubio. Rubio supported amnesty for illegal immigrants with the “gang of eight” bill, supported legislation giving Obama expanded trade powers, fought efforts to curb Muslim immigration, supports expanded H1B visas for the recruitment of more foreign workers, and voted against food stamp reforms.) [87601]

On February 2 Ben Carson says on Fox & Friends , “If Ted Cruz doesn’t know about this [his campaign’s tactics], then he clearly needs to very quickly get rid of some people in his organization. And if he does know about it, isn’t this the exact kind of thing that the American people are tired of? Why would we want to continue that kind of, you know, shenanigans?” [87509]

Carson’s wife Candy, who went to several caucuses to let the voters know her husband was indeed still in the race, tells MSNBC, “It wasn't fair to us; it wasn’t fair to Iowans; and it also wasn’t fair to the other candidates. Who knows how many of those votes might have gone to them? It’s just totally tainted. …That’s politics …[but] that’s not the American way, that’s not what our founding fathers envisioned.” [87509]

Caucus attendee Sheryl Leonard later states, “Here is what I witnessed last night. I was a guest speaker on behalf of Ben Carson at the Caucus in Altoona at an elementary school and I spoke last night. …After my speech was over the Ted Cruz spokesperson made their speech and closed with ‘By the way Ben Carson is dropping out of the race.’ I got up and shouted ‘He’s lying.’ Immediately after that… who walks in? CANDY CARSON! Ben Carson’s wife! She backed me

7 up and said it was a lie! Ben was NOT dropping out and not to be deterred. The people then voted and Ben came in 2ND PLACE! Just 8 votes shy of first place. …Remember a couple days before this Cruz sent out mailers to people sharing their neighbor’s voting records to shame & embarrass them and pressure them. Ted Cruz is a PHONY ladies and gentlemen. He campaigns as a ‘Conservative Christian’ and spreads outright lies in order to steal a win illegitimately in an election.” [87531]

The Bernie Sanders campaign states it has been informed by the Iowa Democrat party that the caucus results from 90 precincts are missing. Townhall.com posts a video showing how loosely the caucuses were run: at one location, an “official” simply hand counts the raised hands of Clinton supporters. (Sanders can hardly demand a recount when the process in some precincts is nothing more than someone manually counting people on each side of the room. The process itself is prone to fraud and manipulation, which is how Obama won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.) [87377, 87378, 87388, 87391, 87397, 87398, 87408, 87409, 87444]

The Illinois Board of Elections rules that Ted Cruz can appear on the state’s ballots: “The Candidate is a natural born citizen by virtue of being born in [Alberta,] Canada to his mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth.” (That, of course, is not the criteria for natural born citizen status. The Illinois Board of Elections—which is certainly not the final arbiter—may consider the issue closed, but it will not go away elsewhere. Cruz, the “Albertan charlatan,” has never submitted any documentation proving he is even a U.S. citizen, let alone a natural born citizen. On January 10 an article at the leftist DailyKos.com insisted Cruz is not a natural born citizen.) [87446, 87447, 87469, 87508, 87660, 87700, 88202, 88432]

The Illinois Board of Elections (and Ted Cruz supporters) should be asked if Prince Hamzah bin Hussein of Jordan can be president of the United States. His mother, Queen Noor, is the American widow of King Hussein. (She was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby in Washington, D.C.) The prince’s situation is the same as that of Ted Cruz: birth on foreign soil to a foreign father and U.S. citizen mother. (Hamzah bin Hussein was born in 1980 and is therefore at least 35 years old. If one believes Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen, one must also believe the same of the prince. The Constitution also requires that the president must have been “fourteen Years a Resident within the United States,” but Hamzah could move to the United States and in 14 years run for president. Further, he could renounce his Jordanian citizenship, just as Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship. Not one person alive can argue against the prince being president of the United States without also arguing that Cruz is not eligible.) [88277, 88279]

At Townhall.com political editor Guy Benson writes, “Where as [sic; whereas] the GOP tallies its votes by counting each voter’s selection as a vote (a novel concept), Democrats deal in terms like ‘state delegate equivalents,’ of which Mrs. Clinton had been awarded 699.57 late last night. Some Iowa Democrats believe Sanders narrowly won the popular vote outright, with Sanders supporters demanding that the state party release the hidden ‘raw vote totals.’ Seems like a reasonable ask, no? The party is technically called ‘Democratic,’ after all. Meanwhile, the media coverage hasn’t been very kind to Team Clinton, with the New York Times reporting that the too-close-to-call embarrassment in Iowa has ‘unnerved’ her aides.” [87378]

At Slate.com William Saletan declares, “Marco Rubio isn’t a winner” and writes, “[M]ost Republicans don’t just find [Donald] Trump or [Ted] Cruz acceptable; they prefer at least one of these two candidates as their first choice. When second choices are factored in, Cruz and Trump do even better. In the four polls that have asked that question, Trump got the first- or second- choice votes of 46 percent of Republicans. Cruz got the votes of 41 percent. Nationally, Rubio has been a distant third. He averaged 11 percent in [seven national] polls, compared with 35 percent for Trump and 20 percent for Cruz. But let’s take Rubio’s dream scenario: Jeb Bush, Gov. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, and Gov. John Kasich drop out of the race, and all of their supporters switch to Rubio. That’s another 13 percent, which bumps Rubio up to 24 percent. That’s still well below Trump’s 35 percent. It’s not even enough to catch Cruz, if Cruz does half as well in luring voters from Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, and Sen. Rand Paul—who have been splitting another 13 percent of the Republican electorate—as Rubio, in this fantasy scenario, does among the Bush-Christie-Kasich crowd.” [87412]

At WashingtonTimes.com Charles Hurt writes that Ted Cruz “followed in the footsteps of previous Iowa winners in that he shamelessly and overtly deployed his religious faith as a guiding—perhaps overriding—reason for electing him. The man was literally quoting scripture during his campaign events. This preaching culminated in the creepy footage of Mr. Cruz directing his supporters to ‘awaken the body of Christ.’ Ick. Obviously, it is a strategy that works in Iowa. But I am also pretty sure that God is not so hot about somebody awakening the body of Christ for personal political purposes. Sounds, well, a little self-centered and diabolical. And, unfortunately for Mr. Cruz, it doesn’t usually work so well going forward. Even in a place like South Carolina where they love their Christian politicians, Mr. Trump is beating Mr. Cruz by 15 points, according to the polls. The problem for Mr. Cruz is that it is undeniable that Mr. Trump has at least broken through to Christian voters. Many of them trust him and believe that he is serious about fighting for them and protecting religious liberty.” [87413]

Rush Limbaugh gives Marco Rubio a boost on his radio program, saying, “I don’t like this idea that Marco Rubio is all of a sudden being labeled as an establishment candidate. I know that Rubio’s got the baggage of that ‘gang of eight’ bill—I understand that. But I’m here to—Marco Rubio is no moderate Republican centrist… I’m just telling you, I don’t see Marco Rubio as anything other than a legitimate, full-throated conservative. Nobody’s pure and nobody is ever free of making mistakes. I know Senator Rubio… I don’t like this idea that we’re all of a sudden going to make Rubio the establishment bad guy, as though Rubio is no different from the [John] McCains, and the Bob Doles, and the [Mitt] Romneys, and the others that [sic; who] have come along and been nominated by the establishment. He just isn’t.” (Before the Iowa caucuses Limbaugh had never called Rubio a “full-throated conservative.”) [87436]

Even if Rubio is a strong conservative on some issues, that may prove to be meaningless if he is elected president and he does not strengthen border security and legal immigration rules. (Rubio voted for Obama’s fast-track trade authority scheme.) The nation’s economy will collapse if the parasites continue to pour into the country, go on welfare, and sap the energy of the remaining producers. At that point it will matter little where Rubio stands on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage. (But Limbuagh will still be a multimillionaire in a gated community.)

Obama meets with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the White House, and then has lunch with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). (Meanwhile, House conservatives are up in arms over Ryan’s call for them to be “realistic” while Democrats control the White House. Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID) comments, “Our leadership is telling us to be realistic and it’s through realism that we’re going to win national elections. Well, guess what, we were realistic in 2012 and with all due respect, not only did we lose the presidency, we lost [did not win] the Senate.” Labrador is right to be skeptical. Even if the Republicans do not err for the third campaign in a row and win the White House, the Democrats stand a good chance of winning the Senate. The Ryan crowd will then ask conservatives to be patient and wait for the 2018 elections. In the meantime, Democrat programs and schemes continue unhindered.) [87455, 87497]

DailyCaller.com reports, “As a Senator in 2011, Sec. of State John Kerry sent an email containing information that the State Department now says is classified as ‘Secret’ from a non- government account to Hillary Clinton, agency spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. The tranche of Hillary Clinton records released on Friday [January 29] contains the sensitive May 11, 2011 email, which is heavily redacted because it contains foreign government information. In the email, which Kerry sent from his iPad and was first reported on Friday, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee discussed negotiations between India and Pakistan. Kirby was asked Monday [February 1] whether Kerry sent the email from a personal email address, but the spokesman did not have an answer at the time. By Tuesday, he did. ‘The one that we talked about being upgraded to ‘Secret’ was sent from a non-official account, and the account from which it was sent is no longer active,’ Kirby said during the daily press briefing.” (Not only has Clinton transmitted classified information via her unsecured private email account, so has Kerry.) [87416, 87445]

In Rome, Secretary of State John Kerry states, “Daesh [ISIS] is in fact nothing more than a mixture of killers, of kidnappers, of criminals, of thugs, of adventurers, of smugglers and thieves. And they are also above all apostates, people who have hijacked a great religion and lie about its real meaning and lie about its purpose and deceive people in order to fight for their purposes.” Pamela Geller comments, “…I cannot help but be bemused and amused by John Kerry, world- renowned Islamic scholar, declaring the Islamic State faithful to be ‘apostates.’ What school of Islamic jurisprudence is Kerry basing this on? First, it’s ‘ISIS has nothing to do with Islam’ and now, when it can no longer be denied, it’s, ‘well—they’re Islamic apostates!’ These are the people in charge of our security? The former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Adel Kalbani, said, ‘ISIS have the same beliefs as we do.’ The Islamic State explains their every action using the Quran, hadith and sira.” (The Hadith is a collection of what Muhammad did and how he behaved. The sira is the biography of the prophet Muhammad.) [87484, 87485]

Burce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota, bans children from celebrating Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas because Muslims find them offensive. In a letter to parents, school principal Scott Masini writes, “I have come to the difficult decision to discontinue the celebration of the dominant holidays until we can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else’s view. …One of the concerns that I have… is whether or not this practice is encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening the culture of tolerance and respect for all.” The school district issues a

10 statement: “Because Saint Paul Public Schools is a diverse district that is filled with families from around the world we strive to respect all cultures and all students. We recognize that not every student celebrates or participates in some or all holidays. We have a board policy that discourages programs and festivities that celebrate observances unless they are required by law.” [87426]

MexicoNewsDaily.com reports that Mexicans living outside their home country (mostly in the United States), sent $24.8 billion back to Mexico in 2015. (Mexico’s oil revenues were less: $23.4 billion.) “Some 11 million Mexicans are believed to be living in the U.S. and many work in construction. Remittances, 97% of which are sent electronically, averaged $292 last year.” (Taxes or limitations on such transfers are precisely how Donald Trump could “make Mexico pay for the border wall.” It is already against the law for illegal immigrants to work in the United States. The government can therefore block the transfer of illegally-obtained funds.) [87809, 87810, 87813]

General Mark A. Milley, chief of staff of the Army, and General Robert B. Neller, Marine Corps commandant, tell the Senate Armed Services Committee that women should register for Selective Service (the draft) if they are going to serve in combat and be fully integrated into the U.S. military. (Neither women nor men should have to register for a draft. No government has the right to treat its citizens as slaves, even if the duration of the slavery may be only two years, rather than a lifetime. A draft allows a nation to commit itself to wars the citizens oppose. If the United States were attacked by an enemy, and Americans believed their nation and their families were at risk, there would be no shortage of volunteers to fight.) [87424, 87425, 87690, 87711, 87883, 88302]

Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY) introduces the “Fund Essential Menstruation Products (FEM) Act.” It would add feminine hygiene products to the list of items that can be purchased with funds in a Flexible Spending Account (FSA). [87443]

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) endorses Marco Rubio for president. [87379, 87382]

At a rally in Milford, New Hampshire, former Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) endorses Donald Trump. Trump tells the massive crowd, “ISIS is making a tremendous amount of money because they have certain oil camps, right? They have areas of oil that they took away. They have some in Syria, some in Iraq. I would bomb the shit of ’em. I would just bomb those suckers. And that’s right, I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries—I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left.” [87410, 87451, 87454, 86637]

Over Somalia, an explosion during a Daalo Airlines flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia kills suicide bomber Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle and ejects his body out of the plane. Pilots manage to land the Airbus A321-111 safely in Mogadishu. (The terrorist, who is believed to have been given an explosive-filled laptop computer by an airport employee, had chosen a seat above the wing—an ideal position for a bomb because of the location of the fuel tanks.) [87461, 87462, 87480, 87617, 87618, 87619, 87653]

On February 3 Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) suspends his presidential campaign.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza tweets, “Rand Paul probably lost the 2016 presidential race on Aug. 19, 2014. That was the day James Foley was beheaded.” (Cillizza’s point is that Rand Paul’s appeal to is to Libertarians and conservatives who want smaller government at home and limited involvement overseas. The rise of ISIS and continuing Islamic terrorism makes it difficult for some voters to lean toward a foreign policy of minimal interventionism. Of course, Cillizza is also unwittingly declaring Obama’s foreign policy record a total failure. Had Obama not so severely messed things up in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere, voters in the United States could focus more on domestic issues and not fear jihadist attacks.) [87441, 87442]

The New York Times editorial board writes, “The Pentagon has put Russia at the top of its list of national security threats with its plan to increase the deployment of heavy weapons, armored vehicles and troops on rotating assignment to NATO countries in Central and Eastern Europe.” (This is the same New York Times that, along with the rest of the mainstream media, ridiculed Mitt Romney in 2012 for stating that Russia was the greatest geopolitical threat faced by the United States.) [87437]

Obama, who also ridiculed Romney on the point during one of their three 2012 debates, asks Congress for more money for military spending in Europe to counter Russia’s increasing influence. (Obama has apparently learned that Romney was correct.) [87448, 87449]

Obama visits the radical Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque, removes his shoes, and delivers a speech filled with straw man arguments. He also calls for television programs with Muslim characters. (“Goat Dynasty,” “The Real Housewives of Riyadh,” and “Little Mosque on the Prairie” come to mind.) He absurdly claims, “This mosque, like so many in this country, is an All-American story,” “For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace,” “Muslim Americans keep up [sic; us] safe,” and “Generations of Muslim Americans helped to build our nation.” Obama also criticizes “inexcusable political rhetoric that has no place in our country” and says, “An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions.” (Pamela Geller: “That’s as stupid as saying an attack on one country is an attack on all countries.”) Although the mosque typically prohibits females from entering the main room, an exception is made for Obama’s visit—to fool the media and television viewers into thinking it is an open, moderate place of worship. [87438, 87439, 87440, 87468, 87474, 87476, 87487, 87491, 87492, 87553, 87554, 87594, 87710, 87909]

Defending Muslims, Obama argues, “The Qur’an says whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind.” (Obama does not define “innocent.” To many Muslims, those who do not follow Islam are not innocent. That is, being a Christian or a Jew is enough to be classified as not innocent.) [87550]

Apparently having forgotten that he is court fighting the Little Sisters of the Poor in an effort to force them to provide employees with abortifacients and sterilization, Obama says, “We have to respect the fact that we have freedom of religion.”

“As we protect our country from terrorism,” says Obama, “we should not reinforce the ideas and the rhetoric of the terrorists themselves. I often hear it said that we need moral clarity in this

12 fight. And the suggestion is somehow that if I would simply say, these are all Islamic terrorists, then we would actually have solved the problem by now, apparently. Well, I agree, we actually do need moral clarity. Let’s have some moral clarity. Groups like ISIL are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders and holy warriors who speak for Islam. I refuse to give them legitimacy. We must never give them that legitimacy.” [87583]

Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer asks, “What makes Obama think that the Islamic State is looking to him for legitimacy? Where did he get the idea that any Muslim looks to any non-Muslim to legitimize his understanding of Islam? …Does Obama think that if he refrains from acknowledging the Islamic roots of jihad terrorism, that some young Muslim who is considering joining the jihad will think again and turn away? ‘Oh yes, I was going to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State until I heard Obama say that they were un-Islamic.’ Ludicrous.” [87583, 87584]

Obama says, “So the best way for us to fight terrorism is to deny these organizations legitimacy and to show that here in the United States of America, we do not suppress Islam; we celebrate and lift up the success of Muslim Americans. That’s how we show the lie that they’re trying to propagate. We shouldn’t play into terrorist propaganda. And we can’t suggest that Islam itself is at the root of the problem. That betrays our values. It alienates Muslim Americans. It’s hurtful to those kids who are trying to go to school and are members of the Boy Scouts, and [who] are thinking about joining our military.” (Robert Spencer again: “How does it betray our values? He didn’t say. When did denial and willful ignorance become core American values? He didn’t say that, either.”) [87593]

During Obama’s mosque visit, the word “Allah” in Arabic appears in many places behind him on the wall as he speaks. ProgressivesToday.com points out that when Obama spoke at Georgetown University in April 2009, he ordered all religious symbols to be covered up for his address— “including the small letters IHS displayed inside the triangular pediment directly behind and above where [he] would stand since the 3 letters signify the name of Jesus Christ.” (According to experts on Arabic history, the nomenclature Allah is the name of a pre-Islamic moon-and-war god.) [87505, 87506, 87505, 87552]

According to Investors.com, “the FBI had been conducting surveillance at the Islamic Society of Baltimore [mosque] since at least 2010 when it collared one of its members for plotting to bomb an Army recruiting center not far from the mosque in Catonsville, Md. Agents secretly recorded a number of conversations with a 25-year-old Muslim convert—Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain—and other Muslims who worshipped there. According to the criminal complaint, Martinez said he knew ‘brothers’ who could supply him weapons and propane tanks. …It’s now abundantly clear the White House failed to properly vet the venue. Reportedly, it let the Council on American-Islamic Relations choose the site, even though the FBI has banned CAIR from outreach because of known ties to the Hamas terrorist group.” [87457, 87458, 87554]

At PJMedia.com Roger L. Simon writes, “Barack Obama suffers from serious case of the real Islamophobia—fear of telling the truth about Islam. Even though [he is] a ‘progressive,’ he says nary a word about the rampant misogyny and homophobia in Islam or about Sharia law whose medieval strictures are preferred by 51% of American Muslims. Nor does he seem to care that so

13 few of these same American Muslims actively oppose radical Islam. [Obama] prefers the Hamas- linked CAIR to courageous reformers like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. But that's no surprise. For Obama, radical Islam doesn’t even exist. Instead, he claims American citizens are mistreating their Muslim brothers and sisters when anyone with a web browser can see that simply isn't true and is yet another Obama lie. In fact, anti-Muslim acts in the USA are few and far less than those against Jews.” [87534]

“…Yet Obama continues to hector us about our anti-Muslim bias. Actually what he is demonstrating is an unconscious contempt for Muslims, treating them like children who need to be coddled. And as most parents know, coddling children is a sure way to ratify, even encourage, bad behavior. …So what is Obama after? The Muslim vote, obviously. But he is equally obviously, and more importantly, working out his own identity crisis, a long and winding road that has taken him from the madrassas of Indonesia to the pews of Reverend Wright.” [87534]

Also at PJMedia.com Nicholas Ballasy reports, “Google Fiber and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have partnered to bring ‘ultra-high speed’ 1 gigabit Internet to public housing units in many cities—a connection speed much faster than the average household in the United States. West Bluff Townhomes in Kansas City, Mo., has become the first public housing development with a 1 gigabit or 1,000 mbps Internet connection through the ConnectHome Initiative. …According to the most recent State of the Internet report, the average U.S. Internet connection speed was 11.9 mbps.” [87535]

While Obama lectures Americans about “Islamophobia,” three Palestinian terrorists armed with knives, guns, and explosives stage an attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. One Israeli Border Policewoman is killed before the three attackers are killed. [87486]

At LATimes.com Christi Parson swoons over Obama’s mosque visit, and writes, “Obama tried to explain Islam to Americans, quoting Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers who welcomed the ancient religion to the new nation.” An actual journalist would have informed here readers that Obama’s claim is false. Several times over the years Obama has repeated the lie that Thomas Jefferson hosted the first Iftar dinner at the White House. As noted in volume 15 of this Timeline , at a dinner honoring Muslims in 2012 Obama said, “Thomas Jefferson once held a sunset dinner here with an envoy from Tunisia—perhaps the first Iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago. And some of you, as you arrived tonight, may have seen our special display, courtesy of our friends at the Library of Congress—the Koran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. And that’s a reminder, along with the generations of patriotic Muslims in America, that Islam—like so many faiths—is part of our national story.” [716, 805, 827, 23443, 23444, 23445, 23532, 23837, 23840, 25674, 25675, 25678, 25709, 35407, 35487, 35488, 35489, 35497, 37231, 87536]

In his book, The Muslim Discovery of America , Frederick William Dame wrote, “Jefferson was interested in talking to the ambassador over the piracy being conducted against American merchant ships by Tunisia, but otherwise could not have cared less about Islam. It was the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan and the temporary envoy said that he could not come to dinner during the day. Jefferson was polite and delayed the dinner a few hours to sunset. There was no special menu.

President Jefferson changed the time of the dinner from the usual 3:30 pm to sunset.” It is correct that the Tunisian envoy visited the White House, but he was not feted with an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan. Jefferson’s interest was not accommodating Muslims; it was putting an end to their acts of vicious piracy —arguably the first Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States. Jefferson ultimately ordered a military response, and the United States enjoyed a decisive victory at Tripoli in the Battle of Derna in the First Barbary War. (The Marine Corps Hymn lyrics “…to the shores of Tripoli” honor that victory.) Pamela Gellar has noted, “Jihad in America goes back to our origins. That wasn’t Jefferson’s prayer book, Jefferson had a copy of the Quran so that he might understand the enemy. Jefferson, in defense of America, was studying the enemy’s war plan, their ‘Art of War.’” [2747, 4642, 4643, 13721, 13771, 13773, 13835, 18318, 18324, 18325, 18334, 18355, 18372, 18435, 35407, 35487, 35488, 37231, 87536]

Thomas Strothotte, president of Germany’s Kühne Logistics University, suggests that Arabic be made a mandatory subject in German schools. [87543, 87544]

En route from New York to Little Rock, Arkansas, Donald Trump’s private plane is forced to make an emergency landing in Nashville, Tennessee because of engine trouble. (At NewsWithView.com Jim Nouri writes, “[I]n light of some statements by several people—such as two well-known GOP political consultants who advocate shooting Trump in his head—a thorough investigation should be conducted, said political strategist Mike Baker. …Pat Brady, the co-chairman of the John Kasich for President Campaign, said in an interview that the only way to beat Donald Trump is with a ‘head shot,’ a term used to describe a single-bullet killing. Once he realized the ramifications of what he said, Brady then claimed that his head shot comment regarding Trump wasn't referring to a literal gunshot to the head. …Not to be outdone by Brady, Republican political consultant Rick Wilson appeared on MSNBC and was more direct when he said the GOP political establishment has to ‘put a bullet’ in Trump’s head. According to conservative firebrand and Trump supporter Ann Coulter, ‘Fox News is ignoring these death threats against Donald Trump. Disgusting.’ And NRA firearms instructor Rick Smith noted, ‘Never thought it would be possible, but Fox now makes MSNBC look like a professionally run news media!’”) [87588, 87589]

In a 7News/UMass Lowell tracking poll in New Hampshire, Donald Trump leads with 38 percent, followed by Ted Cruz (14), Marco Rubio (12), Jeb Bush (9), John Kasich (7), Chris Christie (6), Ben Carson (3), Carly Fiorina (3), and Rand Paul (2). Bernie Sanders has 61 percent on the Democrat side, with Hillary Clinton trailing at 32 percent. [87453]

Donald Trump tweets, “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.” (Trump’s critics ridicule his call for a new election, which obviously would never take place. But Trump is not seeking a new election; he is making a fuss about the issue so that it gets media attention and more voters learn about the Cruz campaigns dirty tricks against Ben Carson. The media cannot report on Trump’s complaint without explaining why he is complaining.) [87459, 87460, 87466, 87467, 87470, 87473]

InvestmentWatch lists some of the neoconservatives on the Ted Cruz team:

Campaign chairman Chad Sweet: “Sweet co-founded the Chertoff Group with former Bush and Obama administration Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. As a leader of the Chertoff Group, Sweet ‘ advocated for expanding NSA metadata collection .’”

James Woolsey: “…former Director of the CIA under the Clinton administration. He heads up many Neoconservative groups including being the Chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Founding Member of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.”

Elliot Abrams: “who helped craft Ted’s foreign policy. Abrams is a leader in the neocon world, and he is a leader of what is perhaps the most powerful and pernicious group in the neocon network: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).”

Dan Gabriel: “Ted’s ex-CIA PR guy… Gabriel is involved in SIGINT aka interception—which is turned into propaganda. His twitter handle is @danpgabriel and he was one of the people pushing the angle that it was confirmed to the Cruz campaign that Carson was dropping out. After called out on the lie, the agent deleted the tweet and denies everything in typical spook fashion.”

Heidi Cruz: “Ted Cruz’s wife, a member of the CFR for five years, she co-sponsored the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, which was launched in October 2004. The goal of the task force was to coalesce a plan for the full integration of Canada, Mexico and the United States into a E.U.-style superstate called ‘The North American Union [NAU].’”

Robert Pastor: “a CFR director and key architect in creation of the NAU, said in the January/February 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine that the current concept of ‘sovereignty’ obsolete and said U.S., Canadian, and Mexican citizens need to be ‘reeducated’ to view themselves as ‘North Americans.’” [87532, 87541, 87542, 87647, 88064]

Rick Santorum suspends his campaign and endorses Marco Rubio. (The Rubio campaign agrees to pay off Santorum’s campaign debt). [87510]

The establishment circles the wagons, with Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) also endorsing Rubio. (Toomey faces a tough reelection battle, and has apparently concluded either that Rubio on the top of the ticket helps him or that resisting the establishment will cost him Republican National Committee support.) [87500]

Former president Jimmy Carter says he would choose Donald Trump over Ted Cruz: “I think I would choose Trump, which may surprise some of you. The reason is, Trump has proven already he’s completely malleable. I don’t think he has any fixed positions that he’d go the White House and fight for. On the other hand, Ted Cruz is not malleable. He has far-right wing policies he’d pursue if he became president.” (Carter will, of course, vote for the Democrat candidate. His comments are meant to discredit both Trump and Cruz and push Republican voters toward establishment favorite Marco Rubio.) [87498, 87503, 87563]

At WashingtonPost.com Fred Barbash writes, “[T]he courts are unlikely to go near the question [of whether Ted Cruz is eligible to serve as president] just because someone brings a lawsuit. If

16 some gadfly, for example, were to sue in federal court to keep Cruz off the ballot, the chances of any judge stepping in to settle the question is close to zero. …There are at least a half-dozen reasons why. All stem from Article III of the Constitution, which restricts the jurisdiction of the federal courts, and from general constitutional principles of separation of powers which dictate that some decisions belong to elected officials and others to judges. …While Supreme Court questions in oral argument are often abstract and hypothetical—‘what if,’ ‘suppose,’ ‘imagine’— the cases must be concrete. Someone must suffer, or be at risk of suffering, a loss or injury separate and apart from the general public. And it’s impossible for ordinary voters or any non- candidate to argue successfully that Cruz’s presence on the ballot prevented them from voting for someone else. So what’s the harm?” [87504]

“Were a competing candidate, who could conceivably show that Cruz could illegitimately deprive her of votes, willing to take the huge political risk of filing suit to eliminate the competition, chances are a federal judge would say the decision on a candidate’s eligibility is a ‘political question’ not for the courts but for the elected branches of government. …But state courts, which are not bound by the Article III restrictions on U.S. court jurisdiction and have their own standards, might be more inclined to take up a challenge… If a state, perhaps through a renegade secretary of state, were to actually wipe a candidate’s name from the ballot, the issue might then truly be aired if not answered. The candidate would challenge the decision, and that challenge would then probably wind up at the Supreme Court.” [87504]

In other words, the system is rigged. An average citizen cannot challenge Cruz in court because no court will give that citizen standing. (That was the case with a multitude of lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility.) The argument that no one is “harmed” by an eligible individual serving as president is absurd—but that is precisely what the courts have claimed with the Obama challenges. (“If you don’t think he is eligible, then don’t vote for him—the U.S. Constitution be damned.”) In the case of Obama, few public officials had the courage to challenge Obama because they did not want to be called racists. The Supreme Court refused to hear Kercher v. Obama because the Justices feared race riots if Obama was ruled ineligible. (The Court could easily have accepted the case and ruled that he was eligible if that is what they believed. That it refused to hear the case indicates the Justices knew they would have had to rule against Obama.)

But Ted Cruz is neither black nor liked by most members of Congress. In fact, he is almost universally disliked. That increases the chances of legal challenges against Cruz. If even one state declares Cruz ineligible and keep him off the ballot, he will be forced to sue the state. That brings the issue to the Supreme Court—because no court will claim Cruz does not have standing to sue. Cruz then runs the risk of being ruled ineligible. (That should be a 9-0 slam dunk unanimous opinion by the Supreme Court—but that does not mean it would be.) If Cruz does not challenge the state or states that declare him ineligible, voters will ask, “What is he afraid of?”

But the Democrats risk the Court defining “natural born citizen” in historical terms (born on U.S. soil to two U.S.-citizen parents), and that would mean Obama is also ineligible. The Court would not have the courage to issue such a ruling (even though it would be proper), and may take the cowardly way out and rule that the term means born on U.S. soil to one or more citizen parents. That would “save” Obama yet sink the Cruz candidacy. If the Court refuses to hear such a case,

then Cruz’s name would remain off the ballot in whatever states chose to declare him ineligible. (It can be assumed that the “establishment” would prefer the issue to go away—with Cruz sinking in the polls and having no chance to win the nomination.)

Marco Rubio is also not a natural born citizen. He was born in Florida to two Cuban-citizen parents, which means he was a Cuban citizen at birth—not a U.S. citizen. Millions of Americans incorrectly interpret the Fourteenth Amendment and argue that Rubio was born a U.S. citizen, but that amendment was for the purpose of declaring U.S. citizens the freed slaves born on U.S. soil to other slaves. It was never intended to be an “anchor baby” loophole. Of course, even if one considers Rubio to be a U.S. citizen because of the “anchor baby” argument, he nevertheless is not a natural born citizen—which historically has meant birth on U.S. soil to two U.S.-citizen parents . Even if one generously interprets the requirement and wants to apply natural born citizen status to someone born on U.S. soil to only one citizen parent (as has been the argument for Obama), Rubio fails that test as well. He was born a Cuban citizen because he had two Cuban citizen parents—just as a child born in France to two American parents would be considered a U.S. citizen. If one argues that such a child is born a French citizen because of the place of birth, then one must consider Ted Cruz a Canadian citizen because of the place of birth. One cannot have one rule for Cruz, another for Obama, and yet another for Rubio—but that is precisely what their supporters have been doing. (At the time of Cruz’s and Rubio’s births, neither Cuba nor Canada allowed dual citizenship.) [87604, 88304, 88372, 88557]

It is worth noting the 1971 Supreme Court case Rogers v. Bellei . Aldo Mario Bellei was born in Italy to an Italian father and an American mother. According to Wikipedia.com, Bellei “acquired U.S. citizenship by virtue of section 1993 of the Revised Statutes of 1874, which conferred citizenship upon any child born outside the United States of only one American parent (known as jus sanguinis). Bellei received several warnings from government officials that failure to fulfill the five-year residency requirement before age 28 could result in loss of his U.S. citizenship. In 1964, he received a letter informing him that his citizenship had been revoked under § 301(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Bellei challenged the constitutionality of this act. The three-judge District Court held the section unconstitutional, citing Afroyim v. Rusk , and Schneider v. Rusk . The Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling against Bellei.” [87802, 87803, 87805]

Bellei is significant because it demonstrates that while an individual born outside the United States to one U.S. citizen parent can, if he satisfies certain requirements, be considered a U.S. citizen. But Bellei was not considered a natural born citizen—because such status cannot be taken away. One is either a natural born citizen at birth or one is not, and nothing one does later in life can alter that status. But Bellei was only considered a “generic” U.S. citizen, and that status can be taken away. If the Court did not consider Bellei to be a natural born citizen, it would have to agree that Ted Cruz is also not a natural born citizen. Cruz’s situation is, of course, exactly like Bellei’s: Cruz was born outside the United States to a foreign father and an American mother. Thus, like Bellei, Cruz can only be considered a generic U.S. citizen and cannot be considered a natural born citizen. Cruz can therefore not legally serve as president. (Bellei and Cruz were granted U.S. citizenship; they were not born with it. Unlike natural born citizen status, generic citizenship that is granted does not make one eligible to serve as president or vice president.) [87804]

Many Cruz supporters claim he is eligible to serve as president because of “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” which was passed on March 26, 1790. That legislation reads, In part, “And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States…” There are several problems with that claim. First, that act was repealed in 1795 and the replacement language omitted the words “natural born.” It states only that such children “shall be considered as citizens of the United States…” Cruz was obviously not born between 1790 and the 1795 statute; the 1790 statute therefore does not apply to him. Second, the statutes read, “children of citizens.” The word citizens is plural . Because only one of Cruz’s parents was an American he was not a child of U.S. “citizen s.” [87940, 87956, 88278]

Third, the very fact that the 1790 statute states the child is only “considered” to be a natural born citizen proves that children born outside the United States were not then considered natural born. That is, there would be no need to include such a rule in the 1790 statute if it had been universally understood that the natural born citizen status applied to foreign-born children. As an example, if the vast majority of Americans understood the term “marriage” to include same- gender couples, there would be no need for any state to pass legislation declaring same-gender marriages legitimate. The very fact that such laws have been passed is proof that the term marriage has historically been understood not to mean the union of two men or two women. Therefore, any law that attempts to declare that “a person in situation X is now considered a natural born citizen” means he would not have been classified as such before the passage of the law. The 1790 statute was replaced precisely because it was realized that children born outside the United States should only be considered naturalized U.S. citizens, and not natural born citizens. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization…” Any citizenship laws passed by Congress pertain only to naturalization . They cannot apply to natural born citizen status because that status cannot be “granted” by Congress. One is either born with that status or one is not—which is the point of the word “natural.” A statue can make Ted Cruz a naturalized U.S. citizen, but it cannot make him a natural born citizen. He was not born with that status and it can therefore never be assigned to him. [86465, 87940, 87956, 88278]

Congressman Chris Stewart (R-UT), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells Americas’ Newsroom, “I have never read anything that’s more sensitive than what these [Hillary Clinton emails contain. They do reveal classified methods, they do reveal classified sources, and they do reveal human assets. I can’t imagine how anyone could be familiar with these emails, whether they’re sending them or receiving them, and not realize that they’re highly classified.” [87477, 87478]

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) states, “The Director [of the FBI, James Comey] is somebody who cares a great deal about national security and with the body of evidence, he really has no choice but to refer this [Clinton investigation results] for indictment. We have communications back and forth to [Obama] from Hillary Clinton’s private email, we have 1,300 sensitive documents, 22 classified at the highest level, this is well past anyone claiming that they didn’t know. …In this case she made a choice. She made a choice to have a private server, she made a

choice to use it with highly sensitive material, she made a choice to receive and re-transmit documents that should have been classified and have later been classified. These choices are what the prosecution will really be about.” [87493]

Donald Trump addresses a rally at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas—and claims he broke an attendance record for the venue. (The prior record was held by the rock band ZZ Top.) [87479]

At a Democrat town hall event in New Hampshire, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asks Hillary Clinton why she accepted $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. Her response: “Well, I don’t know, um, that’s what they offered. …Every secretary of state that [sic; who] I know has done that.” (By “that’s what they offered” Clinton means, “that’s what I demanded.”) [87499, 87501, 87631]

One audience questioner lobs a softball to Clinton: “Once you become the nominee and [are] elected, how are going to defend yourself against right-wing attacks?” Anderson Cooper than lobs another, asking Clinton, “Do you still believe there’s a vast right-wing conspiracy.” [87514]

Commenting on Obama’s visit to a mosque in Baltimore, Donald Trump tells Greta Van Susteren, “I think that we can go to lots of places. I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there. We have a lot of problems in this country, Greta. There are a lot of places he can go, and he chose a mosque.” [87518]

On February 4 Rick Santorum—who has endorsed Marco Rubio—appears on Morning Joe and has trouble naming three major Rubio accomplishments. [87496, 87564, 87574]

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad tells Radio Iowa, “This thing that they [the Ted Cruz campaign] distributed on caucus night saying that Dr. [Ben] Carson was likely to drop out and his supporters should support Cruz, that is, I think, unethical and unfair. I think there’ll be repercussions to that. …You know, we have a strong sense of fairness in Iowa. Distributing information that was not true about a candidate right at the time people are voting in the Caucuses is an inappropriate thing.” [87540]

TheConservativeTreehouse.com posts two February 1 recordings of Ted Cruz operatives’ telephone calls to voters telling them to vote for Cruz because Ben Carson is dropping out of the race. (Cruz has falsely claimed denied that his campaign made such calls.) [87549, 87581]

Judge Andrew Napolitano writes at LewRockwell.com, “What do the Iowa Democrats know that caused thousands of them to flee from [Hillary Clinton]? They know she is a crook. …Legally, the ground under Clinton continues to crumble. The more she denies, the more she admits. How can that be? That is so because her denials are essentially an admission of ignorance, forgetfulness or negligence, and, under the law, these are not defenses to the failure to safeguard state secrets entrusted to the secretary of state. They are, instead, recognition of that failure. …Let’s be as blunt about this as the FBI will be: Causing state secrets to reside in a nonsecure, nongovernmental venue, whether done intentionally or negligently, constitutes the crime of espionage. And there is more. When asked about the consequences of Clinton’s brazen exposure

of state secrets to anyone who knows how to hack into a nonsecure computer, an intelligence operative winced as if in pain when he remarked that the nation’s then chief diplomat surely compromised the ‘sources, methods, and lives’ of her colleagues. Even Democrats who see Clinton as a symbol of their long-time wish for a progressive female in the Oval Office are beginning to recognize that anyone who has jeopardized American lives for political gain is unworthy of their votes, unworthy of their trust and unworthy of public office.” [87488]

Peter Schiff writes at the same site, “The United States financial system—including the viability of the U.S. dollar—is analogous to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. A lot of people know something is wrong—evidenced by the growing support for the Trump candidacy—and yet 99.5% of the population is ignoring the warning signs of a systemic eruption of unknown magnitude. It’s an event that draws closer with each passing day. …It’s as if everyone knows a catastrophe is about to occur and yet most remain embalmed with the hope that it can’t really happen.” [87489, 87490]

At WashingtonExaminer.com Philip Klein writes, “[T]he Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] reported that fewer than 13 million individuals signed up for Obamacare plans for 2016. Though the administration is trying to argue that this 12.7 million number beat expectations, nobody is buying it. HHS officials set an artificially low target of 10 million signups for the year—essentially flat from 2015—so they would have something to beat. …[A]ccording to the schedule put out by HHS, insurers who wish to participate in Obamacare will have to submit their initial rates in the late spring. After back and forth with HHS over the summer, they’ll start to become finalized in the fall. That means for months leading up to the election, voters are going to be hearing more and more about staggering rate increases coming in 2017. And this year, open enrollment—when individuals shopping for insurance can start to go online and see the premiums on new plans—begins on Nov. 1, or just one week before the election. This means that for the months, weeks, and days leading up to the election, the Democratic presidential nominee and all of the party’s Congressional candidates are going to have to contend with news of sky-rocking rates coming from Obamacare as insurers struggle to make the business profitable.” [87669]

Publisher Harper Collins announces it has signed a book deal with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. The book will have a fall release date. (She may perhaps be trying to push some anti-Trump tales right before the election.) Jim Kouri notes at NewsWithViews.com that HarperCollins Publishers is a subsidiary of NewsCorp, which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal , and The Weekly Standard . [87625, 87626]

At the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama criticizes Americans who fear Muslims, saying, “…Fear does funny things. Fear can lead us to lash out at those who are different. Or get some sinister ‘other’ under control. …If we let it consume us, the consequences of that fear can be worse than any outward threat. …Faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear.” (Obama is pandering to the mostly Christian audience. He knows full well that Muslims consider Mohammed to be their prophet and do not believe Jesus Christ is the son of God.) [87519, 87533]

Perhaps for the benefit of Americans who are not supposed to fear Muslims, ISIS releases a video of an English-speaking teenager (age 13 or 14) beheading a prisoner. [87545, 87546]

The Associated Press reports, “The Belgian who led the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris [Abdelhamid Abaaoud] bragged that he slipped into France with a group of 90 extremists from Europe and the Middle East, according to testimony from the woman who tipped police to his location.” [87547, 87551]

Rush Limbaugh observes “[Obama] talks about how awesome Islam is all the time, one of the most beautiful sounds he’s ever heard is the morning call to prayer in an Islamic country. He says it’s the most peaceful, most giving religion out there, that the mosque called a prayer one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. And, at the same time, he’s out there, and look what he says about Christians. He says he is one. Look, he talks about ’em as bitter clingers and they hold on to their guns when they’re nervous. My question is, given all this, why did he choose to become a Christian? I’ve always wondered that. He’s such a defender and promoter of Islam, and, on the other hand, he and his party are constantly denigrating Christians. I don’t care what the issue is, whether it’s guns, whether it’s gay marriage, any cultural or social issue, or the bitter clinger comments. I’ve always wondered about this. …I’m just asking a question.” [87585, 87586, 87587]

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Judd states that illegal immigrants caught crossing the border have been “given an official document that ordered them to appear before an immigration judge at some future date. These orders are called Notices to Appear (NTA). The only problem, however, is that these official orders are usually ignored; so much so that Border Patrol Agents have dubbed them Notices to Disappear. The latest data that I have seen shows that approximately 40 percent of the individuals being issued NTAs do not show up. The willful failure to show up for court appearances by persons that were arrested and released by the Border Patrol has become an extreme embarrassment for the Department of Homeland Security. It has been so embarrassing that DHS and the U.S. Attorney’s office has come up with a new policy.” [87515, 87516]

“Simply put, the policy makes mandatory the release, without an NTA, of any person arrested by the Border Patrol for being in the country illegally, as long as they do not have a previous felony arrest conviction and as long as they claim to have been continuously in the United States since January of 2014. The operative word in this policy is ‘claim.’ The policy does not require the person to prove they have been here which is the same burden placed on them during deportation proceedings. Instead, it simply requires them to claim to have been here since January of 2014. Not only do we release these individuals that by law are subject to removal proceedings, we do it without any means of tracking their whereabouts. Agents believe this exploitable policy was set in place because DHS was embarrassed at the sheer number of those who choose not to follow the law by showing up for their court appearances. In essence, we pull these persons out of the shadows and into the light just to release them right back to those same shadows from whence they came.” [87515, 87516]

“Immigration laws today appear to be mere suggestions. There are little or no consequences for breaking the laws and that fact is well known in other countries. If government agencies like DHS or CBP are allowed to bypass Congress by legislating through policy, we might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether. I believe it is all our hope that people choose to govern themselves by honoring and sustaining the laws without compulsion. However, if they do not, there must be consequences and an enforcement mechanism that oversees compliance. In the absence of consequences and enforceable laws innocent people are hurt, criminals are rewarded, chaos abounds, and cartels reap huge financial benefits.” [87515, 87516]

Judd tells the subcommittee, “Right now the Border Patrol [management] has actually told us that we can no longer ask them [illegal immigrants] that question, ‘why are they coming?’ any more. We can’t even ask that question.” Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID) asks, “What do you think are the consequences for agents who are unwilling to comply with these limiting policies?” Judd: “They’ll be terminated.” Labrador: “So for wanting to enforce the law that is in the books, they are going to be terminated from their jobs?” Judd: “Absolutely.” [87538]

The Center for Immigration Studies’ Jessica M. Vaughan tells the subcommittee, “The vast majority [of the illegal immigrants] are coming because they understood that they would be allowed to stay, and that the smugglers are telling them and advertising in their home countries that if they get to the border that they will be released and allowed to stay for an indefinite amount of time.” [87538]

Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli appears before the House oversight and Government Reform Committee to be grilled for having increased the price of a drug by more than 5,000 percent. Rather than answer questions, he invokes his Fifth Amendment right. (In July 2015 Shkreli gave $33,400 to the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee.) [87575]

Donald Trump loses ground in a national Public Policy Polling survey. He leads with 25 percent (down 9 points), followed by Marco Rubio (21), Ted Cruz (21), and Ben Carson (11). [87494]

In a WHDH/UMass Lowell poll, Trump leads in New Hampshire with 36 percent (down 2 from the prior poll). Rubio has 15 (up 7); Cruz 14 (up 2); Bush 8 (down 1); Kasich 7 (down 2); Chris Christie 5 (down 2). [87599]

Trump draws a huge crowd at a campaign event in Exeter, New Hampshire, and fire marshalls are forced to turn people away—including Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace and The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank. [87513, 87517]

According to CNN, former NAACP head Benjamin Jealous will endorse Bernie Sanders for president. [87495]

At an event in New Hampshire, a young man asks Ted Cruz how he could have been unaware that he was born a Canadian citizen, which he did not renounce until May 14, 2014. He adds, “This isn’t a question about your eligibility; it’s a question about your credibility.” Cruz replies that “under U.S. law, the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen.” (Cruz is lying and he knows it. The statute only considers the child to be a generic U.S. citizen under

certain condition. It does not ascribe natural born citizen status. In fact, the term “natural born citizen” does not even appear in the statute.) ThePosteEmail.com notes, “When the questioner attempted to object to the response, Cruz cut him off and went on to take a question from another individual.” [87640, 87641, 87666, 87700]

Some, including NewsWithViews.com’s Devvy Kidd, argue that Cruz has no citizenship at all as a result of his having renounced his Canadian citizenship. Before 1947, children born in Canada were considered British subjects. Children born on and after January 1, 1947 were considered Canadian citizens. Dual citizenship was not recognized by Canada until February 15, 1977. Cruz was considered a Canadian citizen at birth. (Some might argue that he was born a Cuban citizen, depending on when his father gained Canadian citizenship.) Unless he became a naturalized U.S. citizen (proof of which, such as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or CRBA, he has never provided), his sole citizenship was Canadian. Thus, when he renounced that citizenship he became a citizen of no nation. Not only can Ted Cruz not serve as president, he cannot serve as U.S. Senator from Texas. [87963, 88201, 88304]

The Des Moines Register writes, “What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt. First of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states. Second, too many questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night’s chaos.” (Iowa party chairwoman Andrea McGuire is a Clinton supporter and is not about to take any action that will help Sanders. She has contributed $7,139 to Clinton campaigns.) [87512, 87537]

In a debate with Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton insists she is “100 percent certain” she will have no problems with the investigation of her emails and server—which she refers to as nothing more than a “security review.” (Former FBI official Steve Pomerantz tells Fox News, “They [FBI agents] do not do security reviews. What they primarily do and what they are clearly doing in this instance is a criminal investigation. There is no mechanism for her to be briefed and to have information about the conduct, the substance, the direction or the result of any FBI investigation.”) [87511, 87522, 87560, 87580, 87706, 87707]

One of Clinton’s gems from the debate: “I don’t want to just stop bad things from happening, I want to start good things from happening.” [87525]

Clinton also says, “I always wanted to be of service. I met my husband who was such a natural, knew exactly what he wanted to do. I was happy to support him while I worked for the Children’s Defense Fund, taught law, and, you know, had our daughter… I never thought I would do this [run for office], and so, I have had to come to grips with how much more difficult

24 it often is for me to talk about myself than to talk about what I want to do for other people. So I’m constantly trying to balance how do I assume the mantel of the position as essentially august as president of the United States and not lose track of who I am, what I believe in, and what I want to do to serve.” (Whether barf bags were available and used by members of the audience is not known.) [87555]

On February 5 Breitbart.com reports, “An Iraqi migrant has admitted to raping a ten year old boy in a Viennese swimming pool so ferociously that the boy had to be hospitalised for his injuries. …Police investigators have ascertained that the 20 year old man entered Austria on the 13th [of] September, travelling into the country via the Balkans.” (Although the incident occurred on December 2, it was not reported for months—because the European governments and the media do not want the public to know how much trouble the Muslim refugees are causing. Pamela Geller writes, “A society that imports this savagery and then covers for it is finished.”) [87591, 87592, 87610]

At an asylum center in Bern, Switzerland, an illegal immigrant from Gambia is arrested for the January murder of a 25-year-old American, Lauren Mann, in her Vienna apartment. Mann, who had been working as a nanny, had given shelter to Abdou I.—who was about to be deported. (Pamela Geller asks, “Why would a young American girl take in a Muslim migrant and provide him with shelter to stop him from being deported? Because the European and American media, the left and the political establishment insist that the ‘refugees’ are harmless, and that we should welcome them, and that any concern about them is islamofauxbic. Because Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who enjoys the unimaginable riches of living in a free society, agreed to impose [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s sharia-compliant restrictions on free speech and block all migrant stories. This is the result. Notice how freely these savages move about Europe. From Austria to Switzerland to Syria, thanks to the Euro-Med agreement.”) [87612]

Austria is collapsing under the weight of immigrants. According to TheLocal.at, “The number of schoolchildren in Austria who don’t speak German as their first language is increasing. Nationwide, one in five children speak a foreign language at home and in Vienna almost one in two children don’t speak German as their mother language. With the number of migrant families in the capital increasing last year, Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz… has called for a ‘rational solution.’ Currently, foreign-born residents in Vienna make up 33 percent of the population, and this is expected to increase to more than 40 percent by 2035.” In Brussels, Belgium (which has large communities of immigrants from Morocco and Turkey), about half of all students take classes in Islam. [88189, 88190, 88232]

A children’s carnival scheduled for February 7 in Herne, Germany is canceled as a result of a threatening letter to German “infidels” and the sexual assaults at the carnival in Cologne. [87595, 87596, 87657]

RT.com reports, “Belgian police investigating a tip-off about the possible radicalization of a 14- year-old male student have discovered a video implicating him and six others in the gang rape of an unconscious girl. Five of the suspects are Iraqi immigrants. The video was shot on a phone camera and reportedly shows the assailants laughing, singing and dancing around their victim, who has passed out after drinking too much alcohol. The men pulled the girl’s pants down then

groped and raped her, police told the Belgian media. Police officials in Ostend, Belgium’s largest coastal city, discovered the evidence of the sex crime as they were investigating a 14-year-old student of the Ostend Technical Institute, who had been seen showing his friends a photo of himself wearing military garb and holding a sub-machine gun. The gang rape video was found on the boy’s phone. Of the seven people arrested in connection with the gang rape, two are Belgium nationals and five are Iraqi immigrants. The oldest suspect is 25 years old. …Several of the suspects showed little remorse for the incident, which happened in November, and didn’t even believe it was a crime at all, the police said. ‘She has nothing to complain about. Women must obey men,’ one of them reportedly told the police.” [87615, 87616]

Mickey Kaus writes, “I went to see Marco Rubio’s town hall this afternoon in Salem, New Hampshire. It was only a few miles from my hotel—I really had no excuse. I wanted to find out: Was Rubio really as slick and insubstantial in this setting as John Edwards? Answer: No. He’s slicker. …When it comes to substance, Rubio draws on an inventory of well-prepared rhetorical modules, with just enough policy to sound sophisticated, that can be inserted where necessary to handle, say, the how-would-you-handle-ISIS question (Sunni ground army!) or disability benefits (get rid of phony claims!). There’s not much sacrifice involved in any of Rubio’s proposals — even avoiding budget apocalypse, which he claims to be very concerned about, is just a matter of raising the retirement age and slowing benefit hikes for the well-off. Nothing that hasn’t been floating around Washington for years. There’s a heavy emphasis on electability.” [88226]

“…He’s got an immigration module too. It ignores Rubio’s ‘Gang of 8’ amnesty push while adopting what seems to be an Enforcement First framework, in which ‘nothing’ happens, amnesty-wise, until the border is ‘secure.’ Everything depends on what ‘nothing’ and ‘secure’ mean, of course. But those crucial seams are effectively buried. Rubio prefaces all this with a digression on ISIS, and how it’s changed the immigration debate: Because our top priority has to be to ‘keep ISIS out of this country.’ It’s an absurd, transparent attempt to put off confronting the Gang of 8 and the effects of a low-skilled influx on living standards. But the audience loves it. The ISIS digression gets the biggest applause of the day.” [88226]

“…All of this is mildly terrifying. If Rubio’s a “robot,” as many have charged, he’s a sophisticated new model robot with simulated humanistic elements and a charm algorithm. And if he still seems insubstantial—which he does—it’s a higher level of insubstantial than you expect: You don’t get the impression he’s actually thought through these problems, but he knows his modules. He’s the ideal choice for Student Body President of America, the best band at Band Camp. And–as those who remember Gary Hart’s 1984 post-Iowa surge know—that may be good enough for Rubio to do very, very, well in New Hampshire, unless someone [Donald Trump] rudely interrupts him.” [88226]

“…Rubio’s not going to drive [Senator] Jeff Sessions [R-AL] from the capital. But you can count on the combination of President Rubio and [House] Speaker [Paul] Ryan to quickly pass an amnesty bill that (like the Gang of 8) contains only the most chimerical guarantees of new enforcement measures. You can also expect them to promote and defend trade, including ‘trade in services’ that involves foreign workers performing those services on American soil. …Corporate lobbyists will be in the saddle, and the promising Sessions movement will have

26 effectively been defeated—probably permanently, given how mass immigration creates ethnic lobbies for more mass immigration. Historians will get tenure trying to explain how this happened so suddenly. …In short, for the [anti-amnesty] Sessions movement—and a particular vision of America, in which even unskilled, non-bright citizens can work a full day and earn a respectable living–Marco Rubio is a state-of-the art K-Street kill shot, a sudden existential threat. We may have only a few days to recognize this.” [88226]

On MSNBC Tamron Hall and Chris Jansing express astonishment over the fact that many young women are not supporting Hillary Clinton. Hall: “The big headline for me in the randomly selected group of people, the young women there did not care that Hillary Clinton could be the first woman president.” Jansing: “That’s crazy to me. It really is.” Hall: “In fact, several of them were offended when she [Clinton] brought the line-up pointing to the fact, ‘how can I be establishment, I’m a woman running for president?’” (It is certainly not a “fact” that Clinton’s gender means she is not part of the establishment; that claim absurdly suggests there is no such thing as an “establishment women.” Hall and Jansing apparently cannot comprehend that voters might use criteria other than race or gender to evaluate candidates. Of course, young women voters are likely swayed more by Bernie Sanders’ offer of free college than anything else.) [87654]

At TheHill.com Philip Haney writes that following the “underwear bomber” attack of December 2009, Obama “threw the intelligence community under the bus for its failure to ‘connect the dots.’ He said, ‘this was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.’ Most Americans were unaware of the enormous damage to morale at the Department of Homeland Security, where I worked, his condemnation caused. His words infuriated many of us because we knew his administration had been engaged in a bureaucratic effort to destroy the raw material—the actual intelligence we had collected for years, and erase those dots. The dots constitute the intelligence needed to keep Americans safe, and the Obama administration was ordering they be wiped away. After leaving my 15 year career at DHS, I can no longer be silent about the dangerous state of America’s counter-terror strategy, our leaders’ willingness to compromise the security of citizens for the ideological rigidity of political correctness—and, consequently, our vulnerability to devastating, mass-casualty attack.” [87614, 87620, 87632, 87648, 87694, 87888]

“Just before that Christmas Day attack, in early November 2009, I was ordered by my superiors at the Department of Homeland Security to delete or modify several hundred records of individuals tied to designated Islamist terror groups like Hamas from the important federal database, the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS). These types of records are the basis for any ability to ‘connect dots.’ Every day, DHS Customs and Border Protection officers watch entering and exiting many individuals associated with known terrorist affiliations, then look for patterns. Enforcing a political scrubbing of records of Muslims greatly affected our ability to do that. Even worse, going forward, my colleagues and I were prohibited from entering pertinent information into the database.” [87614, 87620, 87632, 87648, 87694]

“…It is very plausible that one or more of the subsequent terror attacks on the homeland could have been prevented if more subject matter experts in the Department of Homeland Security had been allowed to do our jobs back in late 2009. It is demoralizing—and infuriating—that today,

27 those elusive dots are even harder to find, and harder to connect, than they were during the winter of 2009.” [87614, 87620, 87632, 87648, 87694]

Pamela Geller comments on Haney’s claims: “Not only did the Obama administration scrub counter-terror programs of jihad and Islam, now we find out that his administration scrubbed the records of Muslim terrorists. If the enemedia were not aligned with the jihad force, this would be front-page news across the nation. …Who gave the order to scrub the records of Muslims with ties to terror groups? …How is this not [an] impeachable [offense]? …The Obama administration is Shariah-compliant at all costs. Its number one priority is to protect Islam, even when it puts American lives at risk. The cold-blooded slaughter of Americans in the homeland by Muslims has not tempered Obama’s Shariah enthusiasm. On the contrary, Garland, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, UCMED, San Bernardino, etc., have accelerated it. …We are being forced to adhere to Shariah mores, but jihad murderers are given sanctuary and protection—to slaughter Americans. The moral, or in this case the immoral, of the story is this: Jihad terror works.” [87648]

Caroline Glick writes, “Obama’s visit to the radical mosque now is a clear signal of how he intends to spend his last year in office. It tells us that during this period, Obama will adopt ever more extreme positions regarding radical Islam. Obama’s apologetics for radical Islamists is the flipside of his hostility for Israel. This too is escalating and will continue to rise through the end of his tenure in office. …Part of the reason Obama is acting with such urgency and intensity is that he knows that regardless of who is elected to replace him, the next president will not be as viscerally hostile to Israel or as emotionally attached to Islam as he is. …For all their anti-Israel sensibilities, though, neither [Hillary] Clinton nor [Bernie] Sanders gives the impression that they are driven by them as Obama is. …This lack of passion makes it safe to assume that if elected president, while they will adopt anti-Israel policies, they will not seek out ways to weaken Israel or strengthen its sworn enemies. On the Republican side, the situation is entirely different. All of the Republican presidential candidates are pro-Israel. To be sure, some are more pro-Israel than others. …But all of the Republicans candidates are significantly more supportive of Israel than the Democratic candidates. So it is simply an objective fact that Israel will be better off if a Republican is elected in November no matter who he is and no matter who the Democratic candidate is.” [87597]

Glick notes, “According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, before Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore, he asked the FBI for its opinion of the mosque. FBI investigators informed Obama of the mosque’s ties to terrorism. They urged him not to confer it with the legitimacy that comes with a presidential visit. Obama ignored the FBI’s advice. The next 11 months will be miserable for Israel. But we should take heart. By all accounts, next year will be better. And judging by the way the presidential race is shaping up, next year may be a much, much better year.” [87597]

Former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton comments on Hillary Clinton’s “100 percent innocent” claim: “There’s no human being in the United States that can make that statement truthfully. She has been blowing political smoke at this thing for months and months.” If other nations hacked Clinton’s email server, “they’re in a better position to be more secure in their communications to try and build defense against collection. So, it impairs our security for

28 years down the road and in some cases is just irreparable. …She made a fundamental mistake that I think everybody understands, that you use your business email for business purposes, and you use personal email for your personal purposes. That’s not hard to understand, unless you’re a Clinton, I suppose.” [87511]

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) sends Republican candidates a list of five questions:

“Question 1: How would you vote (or how did you vote) on fast-track, and would you support or oppose advancing a final trade agreement which enters the United States into a new international commission with binding authority on future United States trade policy?

Question 2: If the vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership were held today, and you had a vote to cast in Congress, would you vote for it or against it?

Question 3: Upon entering office, will you promptly and unconditionally terminate and rescind all of President Obama’s illegal executive amnesties – which provide work permits and entitlements to illegal aliens—including …Obama’s first executive amnesty in 2012, which remains in effect?

Question 4: A supermajority of GOP voters say immigration is too high. Every year, on autopilot, we let in another 1 million immigrants on green cards, 700,000 foreign guest workers, half a million foreign students, and 100,000 refugees and asylees. Historical precedent would be to reduce record-breaking immigration, rather than continuing to surge it beyond all historical precedent. Will you support legislation to reduce immigration numbers, and will you oppose legislation that would add to the number?

Question 5: Today, law enforcement [officers] are under increasing scrutiny and face excessive criticism from the political elites and the media, and are being targeted by criminals and terrorists. Meanwhile, since 2011, the federal prison population has declined by over 20,000, and is on track to be at its lowest level since 2005. Since 2009, the total state prison population has dropped every year, and is over 56,000 lower than it was then. These circumstances may have contributed to a nationwide spike in crime. The FBI recently reported an overall increase in violent crime and a 17 percent increase in homicides in the nation’s 50 largest cities. At the same time, the CDC reports that heroin and opioid drug overdoses have reached an all-time record high. Do you support efforts by …Obama and some Republicans in Congress to reduce penalties for drug-trafficking and further reduce the federal prison population, or do you think government should do more to keep drug traffickers off the streets?” [87697, 87698]

Jezebel.com interviews former classmates of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) at Princeton University. Some of their comments and observations: “I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book.”—Cruz’s freshman year Princeton roommate Craig Mazin. “A huge asshole.” “A nightmare of a human being.” “This guy has wanted to run for elected office since the day that he was born.” “When anyone in my class and I talk about him there is no one who breaks in and says ‘Come on guys, he wasn’t so bad.’” “Everyone in my class that [sic; who] I’ve talked to is horrified that he’s a candidate.” “I tried not to know him.” “A monster geek… constantly dominating the

29 conversation in order to get the attention of the professor.” “[H]e’s about as telegenic as an undertaker.” “There are not that many people in my life who I can think of who I didn’t actually have extensive interactions with who bring up such bad feelings.” “I don’t think that Ted ever had a really good sense of when to rein it back.” “I strongly believed that he wasn’t someone you would want to trust with a modicum of power.” “In my opinion, he was not regarded in the group as a person with substantial integrity.” [88012, 88013, 88492, 88783]

It is worth keeping in mind, of course, that far more of Cruz’s Princeton classmates were liberals than conservatives. But even many of his fellow Republicans can’t stand Cruz. Cruz worked on the George W. Bush campaign in 2000. One colleague form that times remarks, “Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time.” TruthCDM.com notes that “Cruz was the only high-level [campaign] staffer not to get a White House job—instead he was sent off to the Federal Trade Commission, which writers regularly refer to as a sort of Siberian exile. Even now, his former boss George W. Bush can sum up his feelings for Cruz in a single sentence: ‘I just don’t like the guy.’” Former Bush campaign staffer Matthew Dowd: “If truth serum was given to the staff of the 2000 Bush campaign, [most would say they] would vote for Trump over Cruz.” Former House Speaker John Boehner, asked about Cruz at a fund-raiser, “responded by raising a lone finger—the middle one.” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY): “[Cruz is] pretty much done for and stifled, and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem.” [88243]

Bloomberg.com reports that the Chicago Stock Exchange is being sold to Chinese investment company Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group. [87695, 87696]

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) calls for an increase in the gasoline tax. (The current federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon.) [87719]

The Republican National Committee and ABC exclude Carly Fiorina from the February 6 debate, even though she finished ahead of Chris Christie and John Kasich in the Iowa Caucuses. Fiorina states, “I’ve been telling you the game is rigged. And here’s even more proof: The people of Iowa voted in an election this week, and I beat the establishment’s guys. Tens of thousands of you stood with us yesterday to demand a fair debate. But Disney’s ABC and the RNC have decided to keep me off the debate stage this weekend, caving to pressure from the same establishment candidates we beat who are afraid to debate me. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. It’s about the people of New Hampshire who are about to vote. This is emblematic of the power that is being taken away from you every day—by the political class, the media establishment, and the bureaucracy. They don’t want your votes to count. They don’t want your voice to be heard. The network of George Stephanopoulos wants to tell you to sit down and shut up and elect Hillary Clinton.” [87520, 87521]

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tells Fox Business Channel’s Stuart Varney, “You take a guy like Cruz, people are liking the Cruz—they think he’s for the free market, and he’s owned by Goldman Sachs. I mean, he and Hillary have more in common than we would have with either Cruz or Trump or any of them. So I just don’t think there is much picking.” [87603]

According to the Department of Labor, only 151,000 jobs were created in January—down from 262,000 in December. The unemployment rate falls from 5.0 to 4.9 percent, mostly because (and usual) more people drop out of the about force and are no longer counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate among white is 4.3 percent; for blacks the rate is 8.8 percent; for Hispanics 5.9; and for Asian-Americans 3.7 percent. [87559, 87568, 87569]

The release of another weak jobs report leads Obama to tell reporters then low labor participation rate—a dismal 62.7 percent—is a “hangover” from the final Bush years. (Exactly how many years Obama would need for his policies to boost the economy is not clear.) [87523, 87524]

The poor economic news prompts a 211-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. [87579]

DailySignal.com explores one of the problems facing job-seekers: excessive licensing requirements. Although it is logical to expect physicians and airline pilots to be licensed, some states have licensing requirements that are simply absurd and inconsistent. “In Nevada, for example, the education and experience requirement for an interior designer is more than 2,100 days, or six years, according to the Institute for Justice. The education and experience requirements for barbers in Nevada is 890 days, more than two years. Meanwhile, the education and experience requirement for an emergency medical technician in the state is 26 days.” The strict rules prevent millions of Americans from starting their own businesses. (Typically it is people already engaged in an industry that lobby their legislators for harsh licensing requirements. Barbers, for example, want to limit competition from other barbers.) [87673]

Congressman Rod Blum (R-IA) introduces a Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2016, which would implement an annual reduction in the salaries of legislators until the federal budget is balanced. [87601]

Politico.com reports that Obama’s next proposed budget will include a $10-per-barrel tax on oil. (Such a tax will never pass Congress because it has no intention of arbitrarily boosting the cost of gasoline by perhaps $0.25 per gallon. It would also boost home heating oil prices. According to the White House, the tax would create “a clear incentive for private-sector innovation to reduce our reliance on oil and invest in clean-energy technologies that will power our future.” The logic is absurd. Obama may as well propose a $50,000 tax on gasoline-powered vehicles to encourage the sale of electric Chevrolet Volts. It is worth noting that Obama bragged about $2.00-per-gallon gasoline in his State of the Union address—as if he had anything to do with that. Now he wants to boost its price to $2.25 per gallon.) [87526, 87556, 87562, 87572, 87708, 87720, 87838]

According to Defund.com, “Just before Marco Rubio’s 19th birthday, police reports show that a cop was sent to Alice C. Wainwright Park in Miami, Florida. Apparently at age 18, he violated the municipal code rules about drinking in a park. However, the police incident report never mentions alcohol! Instead, Marco was arrested for being in a car after the park’s closing time with his male friend Angel Barrios. To locals, the park was well-known as a place for homosexuals for cruising. The Washington Post implies what really happened (noting the park’s problem with people having sex in the park and the frequency of gay prostitution) and it’s clear

31 this arrest is something that Marco Rubio would rather not talk about.” (Barrios reportedly later owned a coin-operated laundromat and a gay pornography studio.) [87527, 87528, 87529, 87530, 87557, 87558, 87571]

The “establishment” plan is for the political operatives to go after Donald Trump. They will dig up (or create) whatever dirt they can find on Trump and get the media to push the stories in order to destroy his candidacy. Meanwhile, the “minor” candidates will continue to drop out because of a lack of campaign funding. If Trump can be damaged enough, the establishment will then go after Ted Cruz, initially using his anti-Carson dirty tricks, and then his “dominionist” religion. If that does not work, the natural born citizen issue will end his bid for the presidency. With Cruz’s candidacy destroyed, Marco Rubio will then become the target—using rumors of past homosexuality. The only one left will be Jeb Bush—who has been the establishment’s first choice all along. Bush can be defeated only if Trump can survive the attacks and only if he is willing to spend his own money. [87566, 87876]

On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton’s campaign suffered a setback because Bernie Sanders has gained far more support than had been anticipated. The “plan” was to have Sanders run against Clinton solely to make the voters believe there was a contest. Sanders was not “supposed to” manage a tie with Clinton in Iowa, let alone defeat her in New Hampshire (which he will probably end up doing). The unexpected email scandal is costing her considerable support. In the event Clinton self-destructs, the “establishment” will have Vice President Joe Biden enter the race, probably with his eventual running mate being Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). But Clinton will not go down without a fight. In the February 4 debate she defended herself on the email issue by complaining about the “retroactive classification” of emails and implied that if she has problems then so do many other people. That was her way of saying, “If I go down, I’m taking others with me!” If Clinton is indicted, she will destroy the political careers of dozens of politicians—including Obama. She certainly “knows where the bodies are buried” over decades of shady deals and activities, and if that means avoiding prison she will spill her guts on as much as she can in an effort to ruin as many lives as she can. The choice in November may be Jeb Bush versus Hilary Clinton—which is what the “establishment” has wanted all along. [87511, 87522, 87573]

According to The Washington Post , “A full account of what led to Rubio’s arrest and the dismissal of the charge are not included in available public records. The court file has been destroyed, according to Miami-Dade County court clerk’s records.” [87528]

Fox News reports that Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, and Bret Baier will moderate a March 3 Republican candidate debate, in Detroit, Michigan. [87539]

In a CNN poll in New Hampshire, Donald Trump leads with 29 percent, followed by Marco Rubio (18), Ted Cruz (13), John Kasich (12), Jeb Bush (10), Chris Christie (4), and Carly Fiorina (4). [87561]

In a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll, the numbers in New Hampshire are: Trump (29), Rubio (19), Kasich (13), Bush (10), Cruz (7), Christie (5), Carson (4). On the Democrat side: Sanders (50), Clinton (41). [87605]

In a national February 2-4 Quinnipiac University Poll, Trump leads with 31 percent, followed by Cruz (22), Rubio (19), Carson (6), Bush (3), Christie (3), Kasich (3), Fiorina (2). Among Democrats, Clinton leads Sanders 44-42. [87606]

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal endorses Marco Rubio for president. [87565]

AL.com reports, “Five Cullman County residents—all supporters of Donald Trump—filed a federal lawsuit this week against 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, alleging that the Texas senator is ineligible for the presidency because he’s not a natural born citizen. …While the plaintiffs concede that Cruz is a citizen, they contend that Cruz is not a natural-born citizen. …‘Plaintiffs allege that at the time of Mr. Cruz’s birth, the United States could not confer citizenship upon him under any law or legal theory that exists,’ the lawsuit states. ‘‘Natural born’ means native born within the United States or its dominions/territories. Canada is not a territory of the United States. Whether the Defendant’s mother was/is a United State’s [sic] citizen is irrelevant. If however, she had been an Ambassador to a foreign country; or, stationed in another country while serving in the military, such would not bar Mr. Cruz’s candidacy.’” [87576]

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly tells WND.com, “When Marco Rubio ran for the Senate in Florida, I think I was the first one to endorse him. I made a trip down to Florida in 2009 just for the purpose of helping him. Once he got elected, he betrayed us all. He said he was against amnesty and against the establishment. And once he got in, right away, he became an agent of the establishment. And now, of course, he’s big for amnesty and letting all the illegal immigrants in. He betrayed us a number of times on that issue. …He’s a lackey for the establishment now. There’s no question they’re picking up as Plan B—or maybe Plan C in this election cycle [with Jeb Bush having been Plan A], or whatever we’re on now—but he certainly is an establishment agent. …Immigration right now is the biggest issue. All you need to do is look at Europe, and you can see that. But there are other issues like trade where Rubio has aligned with the establishment against the American worker. Trade is a big issue. The whole thing with how they are pushing these trade agreements and mass immigration is a cheat and a lie to the American people. And Rubio has joined the group that is pushing it.” [87577, 87661, 87662]

Donald Trump addresses a massive crowd at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, South Carolina. [87578]

On February 6 North Korea launches an “earth observation satellite” into orbit. According to FoxNews.com, “The rocket was fired from North Korea’s west coast and tracked separately by the governments Japan and South Korea, which immediately convened… an emergency national security council meeting.” (North Korea’s Taepo Dong 3 rocket has an estimated reach of 13,000 kilometers. It can reach any point in the United States.) [87607, 87686, 87713]

The Islamic Republic News Agency reports that Iran is now demanding euros, rather than dollars, for oil purchases. [87611]

In Solihull, England, several hundred members of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) hold an anti-Shari’ah rally. Separate rallies are held in more than one

33 dozen cities in Europe. Mohammed Fiaz, an apostate from Islam and Christian convert, addresses the Birmingham crowd and says, “This is not against [Muslims], this is against the ideology that Islam preaches.” Some marchers carry signs that read, “TRUMP IS RIGHT.” [87650, 87651]

At a rally for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright says, “Just remember, there’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t help each other.” (That is, women must vote for Clinton simply because she is a woman—regardless of anything else.) Albright later apologizes, saying, “I absolutely believe what I said, that women should help one another, but this was the wrong context and the wrong time to use that line.” [87667, 87668, 87692, 87717, 87905]

The Republican presidential candidates (with the exception of Carly Fiorina and Jim Gilmore) engage in their final debate before the February 9 New Hampshire primary. Chris Christie has a strong performance; Marco Rubio gives repetitive, rehearsed answers that will cost him some support; John Kasich may do well because New Hampshire Republicans lean liberal; Jeb Bush does a passable job; Donald Trump makes good, strong points that are echoed by the other candidates, but spoils it with some rudeness toward Bush; Ben Carson is his usual polite but boring self; Ted Cruz comes across as a smarmy used car salesman. [87608, 87628, 87629, 87630, 87634, 87642, 87649, 87665, 87767, 87768]

ABC refuses to sell Carly Fiorina advertising time during the debate. (ABC’s despicable decision to keep Fiorina to keep out of the debate is clearly because the network is “in the tank” for Hillary Clinton and wants to portray the Republican Party as engaging in a “war on women.”) [87639]

The debate has an awkward beginning, with both Ben Carson and Donald Trump not walking onstage as their names are called—apparently because they could not hear what was being said by the moderators. [87635, 87636, 87724]

Cruz is confronted about his campaign having spread the rumor that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race. Cruz blames CNN, saying, “I regret that subsequently, CNN reported on that, they didn’t correct that story until 9:15 that night, so, from 6:30 P.M. To 9:15, that’s what CNN was reporting.” But CNN never reported that Carson was dropping out of the race, as Cruz’s supporters told Iowa voters. CNN then issues a statement: “What Senator Cruz said tonight in the debate is categorically false. CNN never corrected its reporting because CNN never had anything to correct. The Cruz campaign’s actions the night of the Iowa caucuses had nothing to do with CNN’s reporting. The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing.” [87609]

Jeb Bush criticizes Trump for using eminent domain to obtain properties for private business purposes. (Bush falsely claims that Trump kicked an elderly lady out of her house in order to build a parking lot for an Atlantic City casino. In fact, the woman refused to sell the property and she defeated Trump in court. The woman retained her house—and turned down an opportunity to sell it for far more than it was worth.) Trump points out that the Keystone XL pipeline cannot be built without relying on eminent domain to buy land. (In the past, Ted Cruz has publicly stated

34 he supports the use of eminent domain.) [87647, 87655, 87656, 87689, 87730, 87825, 87826, 88043]

It is worth noting that George W. Bush relied on eminent domain to obtain property for the construction of the Texas Rangers baseball stadium. In addition, residents of Arlington, Texas had to pay an increased sales tax to help finance the stadium—so that George W. Bush and his co-investors could become wealthier. Trump does not offer that information and Jeb Bush certainly chooses not to provide it either. It is also worth noting that the 350-unit University Gardens Condominiums complex was demolished to make way for the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University—and more than a few condo owners were angered by the low sales prices they were pressured to accept. [87647, 87655, 87656, 87689, 87730, 87825, 87826]

Trump is booed during the exchange with Jeb Bush, and Trump explains why: “That’s all of his [Bush’s] donors and special interests out there [booing me]. That’s what it is. And by the way, let me just tell you: We needed tickets [for this event]. You can’t get them. You know who has the tickets? …Donors, special interests, the people that [sic; who] are putting up the money. That’s who it is. The reason they’re not loving me is I don’t want their money. I’m going to do the right thing for the American public.” (The Trump campaign was reportedly given only 20 tickets to the debate. Republican National Committee donors purchased many.) [87621, 87622, 87623, 87633, 87647, 87663, 87664]

About 13.2 million people watched the debate. [87644]

NBC’s Saturday Night Live excoriates Ted Cruz in a comedy skit that references his campaign’s dirty tricks in Iowa. [87613]

On February 7—Super Bowl Sunday—the White House tweets a photograph of Obama throwing a football. [87638]

Dr. Ed Berry writes at NewsWithViews.com, “[H]ere are some problems with the Iowa caucus. A minor point shows a GOP bias. There were a total of 186,874 GOP caucus votes. Cruz got 51,666, Trump 45,427, and Rubio 43,165 votes. Iowa has 27 delegates to distribute. The GOP rules read, ‘The proportional allocation shall be rounded to the nearest whole delegate.’ Delegate means integer. A simple calculation using the above data shows Cruz scored 7.46, Trump scored 6.56, and Rubio scored 6.24. These numbers round to Cruz 7, Trump 7, and Rubio 6 delegates each. But the GOP gave Cruz 8 delegates. The truth is Trump tied with Cruz for 7 delegates each. Have you heard this from the news media? Or Rush or Hannity? Or Newsmax? NO. Even the so-called conservative news media tells us lies.” (At least the Republicans released the raw vote totals. The Democrats merely declared Hillary Clinton their winner and have yet to release the raw vote counts—possibly because Bernie Sanders was the victor. There is no reason not to release the raw vote counts, as was done in the past.) [87624]

“…One caucus observer noticed the reported votes for Cruz maintained exactly 3000 votes ahead of Trump until near the end of the count. Every time Trump got a vote, Cruz got a vote. An Iowa voter reported the GOP caucus turned away about 100,000 voters because they ‘ran out

35 of ballots.’ Another Iowa voter reported the GOP caucus was unlike any before. Before, they went into rooms for their candidate. This year, whole crowds of 4000 went to any table they wanted and they could easily vote more than once. Cruz was the only candidate who was against subsidies to make ethanol from corn. Yet caucus data show Cruz won Kossuth and Sioux counties. These are the first and fourth biggest corn-producing counties in Iowa. Do you really believe Cruz won these counties?” [87624]

“…The GOP contracted with Microsoft to count Iowa votes with new Microsoft software. Microsoft is the second largest direct donor to Rubio. Rubio is a lead sponsor of a bill called I- Squared, which triples the number of H-1B visas. Big technology firms like Microsoft and Oracle support I-Squared. In 2013, they backed Rubio’s ‘Gang of 8’ immigration bill. Oracle’s Larry Ellison hosted a fundraiser for Rubio’s campaign. Ellison also gave $3 million to the pro- Rubio super PAC. Why did the GOP allow Rubio donor Microsoft count the votes? …There are general rules when you implement new software. One rule is to always keep your original method for doing calculations until you can test and certify new software. Yet, the GOP discarded its old vote-counting methods when it let Microsoft count the votes. It’s a perfect crime. Neither the GOP nor Microsoft has a paper trail to recount votes.” [87624]

Dr. Rich Swier provides additional arguments explaining why Ted Cruz is not only not a natural born citizen who is ineligible to serve as president, he is also ineligible to serve in the U.S. Senate. Swier writes that Cruz “has no legal U.S. citizenship documentation of any kind. He is not a ‘natural born’ ‘native born’ or ‘naturalized’ citizen of the United States. Because someone must be one of the three in order to be a legal citizen of the United States, Senator Ted Cruz cannot possibly be a ‘legal U.S. citizen’ of any form. …In the end, the only possible way to consider Senator Ted Cruz eligible for the Oval Office is if every ‘undocumented resident alien’ is eligible for the Oval Office, which I personally believe is the real agenda of both political parties, as they work to meld the USA into the global commune where there is no legal difference between ‘natural born Americans’ and ‘undocumented aliens.’ The fact that so many Americans do not know or care to know the truth about the Constitutional ‘natural born Citizen’ requirement for the Oval Office, demonstrates just how far down the road of ‘hope and change’ for the destruction of the Constitutional Republic, the enemy within has already achieved. Soon, ‘natural born Americans’ will be in the American minority… and they will be ruled by foreigners who have no legal U.S. citizenship at all.” [87627, 87700, 88050, 88104, 88372]

According to a CNN/WMUR survey, Donald Trump leads GOP candidates in New Hampshire with 33 percent. He is followed by Marco Rubio (16), Ted Cruz (11), John Kasich (7), Jeb Bush (6), Carly Fiorina (4), Chris Christie (2) and Ben Carson (2). [87643]

In a Monmouth University poll in New Hampshire, Trump leads with 30 percent, followed by Kasich (14), Rubio (13), Bush (13), Cruz (12), Christie (6). [87652]

On ABC’s This Week , Hillary Clinton is confronted with the charge from the GOP debate that she supports abortion even up to the baby’s due date. She says, “Well, you know, I’ve been on the record on this for a long time. You know, I think that the life and health of the mother, obviously, rape and incest, have to be always taken into account. And, you know, when he

[Marco Rubio] raises the, you know, very, very difficult issue of late-term abortion, he conveniently overlooks the fact that there are medical reasons, there are health-related reasons. I’ve met women who have had to face this excruciating choice. This is not something that anyone that [sic; who] I’ve ever met with enters into without the deepest thought, the most careful consideration. And I remember at an event back in the ’90s, where, you know, we sat and talked with some of the women who had to make a very hard decision. You know, it’s, it’s just so unfortunate that politicians like Senator Rubio are trying to politicize these kinds of very difficult concerns.” (Clinton avoids addressing the issue, which is that she supports abortion at any time for any reason. The health excuse is a red herring. Almost no one requires an abortion just days before the baby’s due date. Clinton, like many others, also uses the generic term “health,” rather than physical health. That is, she would support a late-term abortion if the justification is nothing more than depression or some other mental health claim.) [87645, 87646]

Before the Super Bowl, CBS airs a fawning interview of Obama and his wife, conducted by their personal friend (and campaign donor), Gayle King. Dressed in black, Michelle Obama says, “I care deeply about the half-time show. Deeply . I got dressed for the half-time show. I hope Beyonce likes what I have on.” [87721, 87722, 87813]

During the Super Bowl half-time show, singer Beyonce Knowles and a group of dancers appear in Black Panther-like outfits, push the anti-police, pro-violence, “black lives matter” theme, assemble into an “X” in a reference to slain civil rights leader Malcolm “X” Little, and raise their fists in a black power salute. Another half-time act includes colored placards held up by people in the stands to produce a not-very-subtle rainbow, LGBT message, “Believe in Love.” (Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke later observes, “[Beyonce and her dancer] coming out in those Black Panther type uniforms, would that be acceptable if a white band came out in hoods and white sheets in the same sort of fashion? We would be appalled and outraged.”) [87687, 87688, 87691, 87693, 87709, 87715, 87718, 87723, 87753, 87812, 87814, 87893, 87896]

On February 8 The Wall Street Journal confirms that Ford Motor Company will be building an additional factory in Mexico, with an anticipated output of 500,000 vehicles per year by 2018. (Ford already produces more than 400,000 vehicles in Mexico.) [87726]

At the leftist Slate.com, Eric Posner argues that Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is not a natural born citizen and cannot therefore legally serve as president. [87780]

Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg tells Financial Times he is considering entering the presidential race as a third-party candidate. (The Republican Party should welcome the news inasmuch as Bloomberg will take far more votes from the Democrat nominee than its nominee. Bloomberg will appeal to voters who are pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, opposed to guns, and afraid of “man-caused global warming.”) [87770]

Jeb Bush tells an audience in Nashua, New Hampshire, “The ideal situation would be to overturn the [ Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ] Supreme Court ruling that allows for …unregulated money for the independent and regulated for the campaign [sic]. I would turn that on its head if I could.” He tells CNN’s Dana Bash, “If I could do it all again I’d eliminate the

Supreme Court ruling. This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can’t be held accountable for the spending of the super PAC that’s their affiliate.” (Bush apparently opposes the First Amendment right to free speech and wants the power to overrule the Supreme Court. Either position should disqualify him from serving as president.) [87671, 87672]

On MSNBC, Esquire columnist Charles Pierce criticizes Marco Rubio for his debate statements that Obama is not incompetent, as Chris Christie suggested, but knows exactly what he is doing by intentionally changing the nation. Pierce says, “Marco Rubio has been a lightweight his whole political career. I mean, let’s go to the rest of what he said there. He essentially accused [Obama] of sedition. That’s a serious charge. I guarantee you, he has nothing to back that up. …He’s saying Barack Obama is undermining the Constitution. That’s an impeachable offense. You just don’t say that about a sitting president!” (Pierce apparently prefers Christie’s argument, that Obama is incompetent. As far as proof that Obama is intentionally trying to change the character of the nation, he need only read this Timeline .) [87662]

Former governor John Sununu (a Jeb Bush-supporting member of the GOP “establishment”) declares that if Donald Trump does not win the New Hampshire primary by at least 12 points “the perception will be that he lost.” [87684]

In a 7News/UMass poll in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton 56-40 percent. On the GOP side, Donald Trump leads with 34 percent, followed by Marco Rubio (13), Ted Cruz (13), John Kasich (10), Jeb Bush (10), Chris Christie (5), Carly Fiorina (4), and Ben Carson (3). [87685]

In an Emerson College Polling Society survey, Trump leads with 31 percent; Bush has 16; Kasich, 13; Rubio, 12; Cruz, 11. Sanders leads Clinton 54-42. [87714]

Ezra Levant reports at TheRebel.media that Canada’s new leftist prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has ordered the military “to draft plans to house more than 6,000 Muslim migrants on a long- term basis at military bases… Included in the Department of National Defence budgets are hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for ‘religious support,’ including the purchase of Muslim Korans, prayer mats and foot-washing towels. The plans also call for the construction of mosques or ‘worship centres, using taxpayer dollars. …[T]he detailed Quebec budget plans also shed light on the sheer scale of the Trudeau government’s plans to set up refugee camp-style accommodations on seven Canadian Forces Bases across Quebec and Ontario. The budget for Quebec alone totals more than $46 million for the first six months. For a typical migrant family, that’s a $200,000/year subsidy—not including medicare or welfare. It’s shocking that Canadian Armed Forces personnel will be ordered to abandon the coalition battle against ISIS and return to Canada to become waiters, chauffeurs and social workers for Muslim migrants, and that Canadian Forces Bases will be turned into squalid refugee camps. It’s a disgrace that Canadian military personnel have been sent eviction notices to make way for foreign migrants. But for the DND’s budget to be diverted away from military purposes and towards buying Korans and building mosques for foreign migrants, is especially outrageous.” (Trudeau’s spending proposals are projected to increase the nation’s deficit by $90 billion over four years.) [87701, 87702, 87704, 87786, 87787]

FoxNews.com reports, “Illegal immigrants and individuals with unclear legal status wrongly benefited from up to $750 million in ObamaCare subsidies and the government is struggling to recoup the money, according to a new Senate report… The report, produced by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, examined Affordable Care Act tax credits meant to defray the cost of insurance premiums. It found that as of June 2015, ‘the Administration awarded approximately $750 million in tax credits on behalf of individuals who were later determined to be ineligible because they failed to verify their citizenship, status as a national, or legal presence.’ The review found the credits went to more than 500,000 people—who are illegal immigrants or whose legal status was unclear due to insufficient records.” (In other word, Congressman Joe Wilson was not mistaken when he called out “You lie!” when Obama promised that no ObamaCare benefits would go to illegal immigrants.) [87712, 87799]

At Chesapeake Bay Middle School in Pasadena, Maryland, a seventh-grade boy shouts in health class, “My name is Jafar; I come from afar; I have a bomb in my car; Allahu akbar! Allahu Akbar!” The boy is apparently not disciplined. One concerned parent later contacts Pamela Geller, writing, “I called the principal, Mr. Dunn. He said that they were doing an investigation and they were about done. He said that what was said was not something the boy could get suspended for because it was only a class disturbance according to county policy. He also said that you can find that phrase all over the internet so he feels like it is a boy just being a boy. I suggested to him that perhaps that is so, but perhaps it is not. He has an obligation to make sure and not just go on his feelings. The teacher that [sic; who] was in class when all of this happened apparently (according to Dunn) pulled the child aside after class and talked to him about his general behavior. This teacher never told the administration what was said so they didn’t know about any of this until I emailed them.” [87964, 88058]

The parent continues, “This is a boy who is muslim [sic; Muslim] and brags about being from Saudi Arabia so I told Mr. Dunn he could have outside influences and maybe he is testing the water to see how the school responds to such threats. He just laughed and said he is sure that isn’t the case. This little boy has been in trouble several time for taking his cell phone and pointing it at other kids while the cell makes gun noises. …I asked Mr. Dunn to put the parents’ minds at ease and put out a letter letting us know what happened, what action was taken and what in the future will be done with threats or rhetoric like this. As of Friday afternoon [February 12], all we were told by the Superintendent… was that they would speak with the kid’s parents. It is bothersome first that the teacher didn’t let administration know and second, that when they did find out they didn’t take it seriously and said it was merely a classroom disruption. If you have time or interest in matter the please contact me. I vow not to let this rest until someone makes the school responsible for this lack of effort to keep out kids safe.” [87964, 88058]

On February 9 primary voting begins in New Hampshire. In Dixville Notch, Bernie Sanders gets 4 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 0 votes. John Kasich gets 3 votes to Donald Trump’s 2. (Residents of the tiny town traditionally vote just after midnight and the polls then close.) [87699, 87705, 87716]

Obama sends a $4.1 trillion budget proposal (full of spending increases and $2.6 trillion in tax hikes) to Congress—where it will be soundly and wisely rejected. Obama wants to increase the capital gains tax to 28 percent—a sure-fire way to discourage investment and job creation. He also wants a $110 billion tax on banks to punish them for being successful, new taxes on 401(k) plans and Roth IRA disbursements, and an increase in the estate tax to 45 percent—which will force many family farms and businesses to be sold when the owner dies. [87725, 87728, 87750, 87842, 88028]

Obama’s budget proposal includes $270 million in reductions to the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) counterterrorism program (from $600 million to $330 million). Senator Charles Schumer (R-NY) tells the Associated Press, “These proposed cuts are ill-advised and ill-timed and they must be reversed. End of story. In light of recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and the vow by our extremist enemies to launch more attacks on our shores, it makes no sense to propose cuts to vital terror-prevention programs like UASI. New York City remains terror target number one and the NYPD relies on these programs to keep us safe.” (Obama’s proposed cut should be a huge issue for the Republicans—yet it is Democrat Schumer who is raising it.) [87966, 87967, 88017, 88125]

FBI Director James Comey tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that his agency has been unable to access encrypted information on a cell phone used by the San Bernardino terrorists. (Of course, it may also be the case that the FBI Has “cracked the code” but wants ISIS to believe it has not.) [87784, 87785]

YouTube.com posts a recording of an address by a citizen of Calais, France named Simone, who describes how her city has been destroyed by Muslim refugees (“clandestins,” or illegals). She explains, “There are riots. They come to the town center. …They bash cars with iron bars; they attack people; they even attack children. There are rapes, there is theft; it’s unimaginable what we suffer. They enter private houses when the people are at home, they just enter… they help themselves, sometimes they also bash the people, stealing what they can and afterwards, what they cannot take they destroy. …They went as far as attacking the statue of General Charles De Gaulle; they wrote on it, “Fuck France,” with the IS [ISIS] flag underneath.” [87735, 87736]

Meanwhile, Breitbart.com reports, “In the latest of a series of raids, German police have searched two homes in a rural village after a television channel interviewed a suspected Islamic State commander living there as a refugee. …Two houses in the village are used to house Syrian refugees, but among the opponents of the Assad regime living there SPIEGEL TV tracked down a suspected commander of the Islamic State terror group after tip offs from other Syrian activists. They had identified him as a man called Bassam, a notorious commander said to be responsible for the deaths of dozens of people.” [87737, 87738, 87739]

Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency tells the Senate Armed Services Committee, “Mosul will be a complex operation, and so I’m not as optimistic… It’s a large city. I’m not as optimistic that we’ll be able to turn that in the near term. In my view, certainly not this year.” (That is, ISIS will retain control of Mosul into at least 2017.) [87740, 87741]

In a 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court blocks Obama’s Clean Power Plan regulations, granting a stay of the implementation of the rules until various legal challenges are resolved. (Voting in the minority are the Court’s leftist Justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.) [87729, 87757, 87788]

Judicial Watch releases “nearly 70 pages of State Department records that show that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her top aides, Deputy Chiefs of Staff Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, received and sent classified information on their non-state.gov email accounts. The documents, also available on the State Department website, were obtained in response to a court order from a May 5, 2015, lawsuit filed against the State Department… after it failed to respond to a March 18 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request…” (It is not only Clinton who should be worried about a recommendation of indictment from the FBI. Abedin, Sullivan, and Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills should be lining up good lawyers.) [87747, 87748]

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, “[O]ver the course of this campaign it feels as if there’s been a decline in behavioral standards across the board. Many of the traits of character and leadership that Obama possesses, and that maybe we have taken too much for granted, have suddenly gone missing or are in short supply. The first and most important of these is basic integrity. The Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free .” (At MRCTV.org Jeff Dunetz responds with “a list of 25 Obama scandal stories” that includes Operation Fast and Furious, the Solyndra loan to campaign donors, and IRS targeting ot Tea Party organizations.) To Brooks, a scandal is a scandal only if the mainstream media calls it a scandal. [87764]

In the New Hampshire primary, Bernie Sanders (with 60.9 percent of the vote) defeats Hillary Clinton (with 37.9 percent). Donald Trump wins the Republican primary election with 35.7 percent). He is followed by John Kasich (15.8), Ted Cruz (11.7), Jeb Bush (11.0), Marco Rubio (10.6), Chris Christie (7.4), Carly Fiorina (4.1), and Ben Carson (2.3 percent). (Kasich’s campaign is going nowhere, despite the second-place finish, but he will try to last at least until the winner-take-all March 15 primary in his home state of Ohio. The “establishment” hope is that enough candidates will drop out, leaving one-on-one contest between Bush and Trump, or Rubio and Trump. But if Kasich, Rubio, Bush, and Cruz remain in the race and continue to divide the non-Trump vote, Trump may end up unstoppable. Trump might lose a series of one-on-one races, but he is unlikely to lose a series of four-on-one races.) [87731, 87778, 87800]

In his victory speech, Sanders tells his supporters, “Now, what the American people understand is that our great country was based on a simple principal, and that principle is fairness.” (In addition to being a Marxist, Sanders is ignorant. The nation was founded on the principle of individual liberty, not fairness. Further, Sanders confuses “fairness” with “equality.” They are not identical terms. That person X may earn far more than person Y can be perfectly fair, even though their incomes are not equal. But Sanders’ emphasis on income inequality is an appeal to attract votes via envy. It is pure Marxism, and totally at odds with the principles of the nation’s Founding Fathers.) [87889]

Sanders wins 15 New Hampshire delegates and Clinton wins 9. But the state has 6 “super delegates” who are not required to support the winner of the primary election. They are also state

Democrat party insiders—who may very well vote for Clinton at the convention in late July. (That is, the game is rigged.) [87752, 87807, 87815, 87847, 87870]

It is worth noting that the 712 super delegates include all Democrat Congressmen, Senators, and Governors; certain “distinguished party leaders”; and another 432 “dignitaries” chosen by the Democrat National Committee. Bernie Sanders can go into the national convention ahead of Clinton by hundreds of delegates chosen by the voters and still possibly lose the nomination to Clinton—especially if the super delegates are afraid of being “Vince Fostered.” Sanders supporters who naively believe defeating Clinton in the primaries is enough to give him the nomination should understand how Obama “won” in 2008:

In 2008 the Democrat National Committee did its best to ensure Obama won the nomination, even though he entered the convention with too few elected delegates to win the nomination in the first round of voting. It was the super delegates who made the difference—and they were threatened and intimidated in order to get them to switch from Clinton to Obama. Several hundred delegates signed a petition demanding that Clinton’s name be placed in nomination. Bill Gwatney, a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and head of the Arkansas Democrat Party, was to introduce the petition at the Democrat National Convention. On August 13, 2008 Gwatney was shot dead in his Arkansas party headquarters. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs was then enlisted to introduce the petition. She died of an aneurysm a few days after Gwatney was murdered, and shortly before the convention. The goal of Gwatney and Tubbs was to get Clinton’s name placed in nomination. Then, once Arkansas announced its vote totals, other super delegates could be encouraged to support Clinton, rather than Obama. But the deaths of Gwatney and Tubbs prompted many delegates to support Obama, and others were pressured by party leaders—like then-Governor John Corzine of New Jersey and then-Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. (In addition, some elected Clinton delegates voted for Obama on the first and only ballot, even though they were legally required to vote for Clinton .) Obama essentially stole the nomination, with the help of the Democrat National Committee and party leaders who wanted a Marxist in the White House. Bill and Hillary Clinton, stunned by the murder of their friend Gwatney and fearing even worse retaliation, kept their mouths shut. This Timeline believes the Clintons were threatened with the release of proof that Webster Hubbell, Hillary’s former co- worker at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, was the real father of Chelsea Clinton.) [30804, 30851, 30913, 30914, 30915, 31019, 31180, 31335]

Sanders captures 83 percent of the age 18-29 voters—proving that offering free college educations can garner votes. [87791]

Trump wins virtually every demographic group. According to Breitbart.com, Trump “The GOP frontrunner earned 46% of the vote among those with a high school education or less; second place was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with 13%. Trump earned the support of 38% of those with some college; second place was John Kasich with 14%. Trump earned the support of 32% of college graduates; second place was John Kasich with 18%. Trump won 23% of those with post- graduate study; Kasich came in second with 22%.” (Trump’s broad appeal contradicts the claims of the GOP establishment and the elites at National Review and The Weekly Standard , who have suggested that only ignorant rubes would vote for the billionaire. Kevin Williamson wrote at NationalReview.com, “[T]he candidacy of Donald Trump is something that could not happen in

42 a nation that could read. This is the full flower of post-literate politics.”) Exit polls show that 66 percent of Republican voters support a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. [87732, 87733, 87734, 87756, 87772]

Jeb Bush spent $35 million on ads in New Hampshire—for a fourth-place finish. [87747]

A record 284,120 Republican votes are cast, surpassing the 2012 count of 248,475. The Democrat tally is 250,974, short of their 2008 record of 287,556. [87815]

Donald Trump tells supporters at his victory rally, “I am going to be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. …By the way, we’re going to knock the hell out of ISIS.” [87745, 87758, 87763]

Addressing her supporters, a fired-up Clinton delivers what sounds more like a victory speech than a concession speech. [87744]

In his victory speech, Marxist Bernie Sanders promises virtually everything to everyone—except for the people whose taxes he will increase dramatically in order to (partially) cover the cost of his hand-outs. (It is worth noting that, according to Daniel Greenfield at FrontPageMag.com, in 1963 Sanders spent time at the Israeli Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim “as a guest of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. Israel had all sorts of Kibbutzim affiliated with various political movements. Hashomer Hatzair was about as bad as it got. Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim had been co-founded by Aharon Cohen, the Arabist, who was a regular critic of Israel and opponent of its policy. He was arrested for spying for the USSR in the 50s. Hashomer Hatzair was a Marxist organization. While the USSR purged most Zionist and Jewish groups, they waited until 1927 to ban Hashomer Hatzair making them the last group to be outlawed. Other left-wing groups described them as Leninist and even Stalinist.”) [87742, 87769]

Media coverage is predictable. On Fox News in particular, Megyn Kelly looks both angry and peeved that Trump won. MSNBC’s Brian Williams calls John Kasich “The only grown-up in the race.” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow insists “it’s not true” that the mainstream media is liberal and suggests Trump winning New Hampshire is “pitchfork populism and xenophobic nativism of a very, very hard-right cast.” Time magazine’s Joe Klein calls Trump supporters “low-information voters” who are “a real threat to this country.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews absurdly describes Bernie Sanders as “logical and non-ideological.” [87759, 87760]

On February 10 AFP reports, “Turkish soldiers have seized explosives and four suicide vests in the baggage of a group of suspects stopped at the border with Syria, the Turkish army said on Wednesday. ‘Between 12 and 15 kilos of explosives and four belts that could be used for suicide attacks were found in two bags,’ the army said in a statement.” [87781]

Iran releases video and photographs showing at least one of the 10 captured U.S. sailors crying. Commander Kevin Stephens, spokesman for Naval Forces Central Command, states, “Professional mariners understand that it is a duty and obligation to assist other mariners who suffer mechanical problems or who find themselves off track at sea. We are grateful diplomacy worked at the end of the day, but it would never have come to that had the Iranian maritime

43 forces involved behaved professionally and responsibly.” (Many are skeptical of the changing stories, that have involved engine trouble or GPS problems. The likelihood that two U.S. patrol boats could both have had engine or GPS problems at the same time is minimal. The assumption of many is that the Obama administration is keeping the truth secret. Fox News’ Andrea Tantaros suggests someone gave the sailors a “stand down” order: “We were not outgunned. They left their weapons and they surrendered on their knees. Somebody had to give a stand-down order. This is the question everyone in the media should be asking and no one’s asking it. Who gave the order to abandon their weapons?”) [87782, 87783, 87816, 87835, 87836, 87851, 87961]

Bernie Sanders has a breakfast meeting with race-hustler Al Sharpton. (Countermoonbat tweets, “BREAKING: Guy who wants to raise taxes has breakfast with guy who doesn’t pay them.”) [87755, 87794, 87795]

Washington Examiner.com posts this headline: “N.H. women choose hell over Hillary Clinton”—a reference to Madeleine Albright’s declaration that there is a special place in Hell for women who would not support Clinton. (Sanders won the female vote 55-44.) [87754]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announces he is suspending his presidential campaign. (If Christie endorses Trump, some may suggest that is an indication the New Jersey governor might be appointed Attorney General if Trump wins the nomination and the White House. Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, who had donated $250,000 to Christie’s PAC, switches his support to John Kasich.) [87743, 87766, 87775, 87843]

Carly Fiorina suspends her campaign. She tells her supporters, “To young girls and women across the country, I say: do not let others define you. Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you’re a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn’t shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology. It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent. A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses and uses all her God-given gifts. And always remember that a leader is not born, but made. Choose leadership.” [87749, 87765]

DCWhispers.com writes, “[A] mysterious, Mitt-Romney-linked Super PAC is letting it be known they are prepared for all-out war to ensure Mr. Trump gets nowhere near the GOP nomination. The name of the ‘anyone but Trump’ multi-million-dollar effort calls itself the, Our Principles PAC and is headed by former Mitt Romney deputy campaign manager, Katie Packer. One of Packer’s oft-repeated complaints against Donald Trump is that he is a RINO. That’s right, the former Deputy campaign manager for MITT ROMNEY [who was hardly a strong conservative], is now complaining that Donald Trump isn’t conservative enough. Packer in turn is being supported by such GOP Establishment luminaries as John McCain, among others, to try and forge an ongoing, anti-Trump message that they hope will ultimately sway public opinion against the New York billionaire. Packer has also admitted she supports Marco Rubio, but says she is not affiliated with the Rubio campaign. Media reports indicated Ms. Packer crowed loudly following Trump’s defeat in Iowa, tweeting out the following clip from a Hollywood action film: ‘If it bleeds we can kill it.’ And while Packer refuses to disclose who is financing the newly formed Super PAC that spent two million dollars in Iowa and is preparing to spend millions more in South Carolina for its anyone but Trump effort, given her close ties to certain wealthy

GOP Establishment individuals, it isn’t difficult to guess…” (That is, Romney is hoping that no GOP candidate wins enough delegates to capture the nomination on the first ballot at the summer convention, and that he will then be chosen by the assembly.) [87776, 87881]

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action (PVA) posts a video showing how easy it was to vote illegally in the New Hampshire primary. DailyCaller.com reports, “In one encounter, a poll worker in Nashua named Susan is seen telling a PVA journalist posing as a non-resident seeking to vote to make up a story that ‘sounds like it’s true’ so that she could qualify to vote. ‘I’m not living here, I am just trying to vote here,’ the PVA journalist says, adding that she did not plan to remain in the state ‘indefinitely,’ as required under New Hampshire law. ‘If you want to vote today, you might want to tell them that you’re staying with a friend. And you’re here indefinitely, because it sounds like it’s true,’ the poll worker advises. ‘Ok, yeah. Not 100 percent true though,’ the undercover journalist responds. ‘Right, but you’re here indefinitely, and you’re staying at your friend’s house, and you’ll be about to vote,’ Susan says. ‘Otherwise, I don’t know.’” [87792, 87855]

“Undercover PVA workers also set out to see how campaign officials operating in the state would respond to requests to skirt the domicile requirement. In one instance, a PVA journalist talking with a Sanders campaign staffer named Peyor Gugal floats the idea of claiming an address that was not her own in order to vote. ‘You should,’ Gugal responded. ‘The only thing is like I don’t know what address to use,’ the journalist says. ‘Oh can I use yours?’ ‘You can if you want,’ Gugal responds. Sanders staffers appeared unconcerned with flouting state law by using fake addresses. And in one case, staffer Donna Waterman acknowledged that doing so could be voter fraud. Nevertheless, she bragged how ‘incredibly easy’ it was for out-of-state campaign workers to skirt the law.” [87792]

Rush Limbaugh (who apparently does not understand the meaning of the term natural born citizen) pushes the candidacy of Ted Cruz, telling his radio listeners, “If conservatism is your bag, if conservatism is the dominating factor in how you vote, there is no other choice for you in this campaign than Ted Cruz… Trump’s not a Republican; he’s not a Democrat. He’s running as a Republican, but he’s way beyond any of this. His definition of conservatism was we’re gonna [sic] conserve. We’re gonna [sic] conserve our money. We’re gonna [sic] conserve our whatever… Donald Trump is not an ideological candidate. He doesn’t look, for example, at [Senator] Chuck Schumer [D-NY] and see a screaming liberal. And, by the same token, he doesn’t look at Ted Cruz and see a screaming conservative. This is not a criticism of Trump. But for those of you that [believe] conservatism’s the answer and conservatism is the way, you have no choice here. Ted Cruz has got to be your guy. There’s nobody even close. Nobody.” (Former candidate Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is more conservative.) [87801, 87806]

Employees at a Carrier Air Conditioning factory in Indianapolis are told their 1,400 jobs will be phased out and the work will be shifted to Monterrey, Mexico. (Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies Corporation (UTC), made about $6 billion in profits in 2015. Apparently that did not leave enough to protect the jobs of 1,400 workers. NationalReview.com notes that UTC “received more than $121 million in tax credits from the Department of Energy through the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, known also as the 48C Program, a stimulus-funded

45 program created for the sole purpose of ensuring that green manufacturing jobs stay in the United States.”) [87867, 87868, 87869, 87900]

At Rutgers University, an address by Breitbart.com’s Milo Yiannopoulos on “How the Progressive Left Is Destroying Education” is disrupted by angry feminists and Black Lives Matter protesters. They are shouted down by others in the audience who chant, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” [87773]

Obama addresses the Illinois General Assembly. He says, “[I]t’s been noted often by pundits that the tone of our politics hasn’t gotten better since I was inaugurated, in fact it’s gotten worse; that there’s still this yawning gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics. Which is why, in my final State of the Union address, and in the one before that, I had to acknowledge that one of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics. I was able to be part of that here and yet couldn’t translate it the way I wanted to into our politics in Washington. And people ask me why I’ve devoted so much time to this topic. And I tell them it’s not just because I’m President, and the polarization and the gridlock are frustrating to me. The fact is we’ve gotten a heck of a lot done these past seven years, despite the gridlock. We saved the economy from a depression. We brought back an auto industry from the brink of collapse. We helped our businesses create 14 million new jobs over the past six years. We cut the unemployment rate from 10 percent to 4.9 percent. We covered nearly 18 million more Americans with health insurance. We ignited a clean energy revolution. We got [Osama] bin Laden. We brought the vast majority of our troops home to their families. We got a lot done. We’re still getting a lot done.” [87789, 87790]

“Look, I am a progressive Democrat. I am proud of that. I make no bones about it. I’m going to make another point here. I believe that people should have access to health care. I believe they should have access to a good public education. I believe that workers deserve a higher minimum wage. I believe that collective bargaining is critical to the prospects of the middle class, and that pensions are vital to retirement, as long as they’re funded responsibly. …I believe we’re judged by how we care for the poor and the vulnerable. I believe that in order to live up to our ideals, we have to continually fight discrimination in all its forms. I believe in science, and the science behind things like climate change, and that a transition to cleaner sources of energy will help preserve the planet for future generations. I believe in a tough, smart foreign policy that says America will never hesitate to protect our people and our allies, but that we should use every element of our power and never rush to war. Those are the things I believe. But here’s the point I want to make. I believe that there are a lot of Republicans who share many of these same values, even though they may disagree with me on the means to achieve them. I think sometimes my Republican colleagues make constructive points about outdated regulations that may need to be changed, or programs that even though well-intended, didn’t always work the way they were supposed to.” [87789]

At Townhall.com Matt Vespa writes, “So, you whip the Illinois Democrats into a frenzy, only to give the token handout to the GOP that we’re good at finding regulations that are outdated—and you’re regretting how you have been unable to be less partisan? Get out of here, dude.” (Also says in his address, “I was reminiscing with [Illinois State Senator] Christine Radogno—we came in in the same class. And we were on opposite sides of most issues, but I always trusted her

and believed that she was a good person.” Translation: “I even got along with one or two Republicans, most of whom cannot be trusted and are evil.”) [87789, 87790]

Donald Trump is endorsed by Bill Stern, a prominent real estate developer and prominent Republican in South Carolina. [87777]

In a radio interview, Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi says, “We are at a cultural crossroads in our country, and if we can be in this race to show this country the face of the God that we serve—this Christian God that we serve is the foundation of our country. Our country was built on Judeo- Christian values. We are a nation of freedom of religion, but the God of Christianity is the God of freedom, of individual liberty, of choice and of consequence.” (Heidi Cruz was raised as a Seventh-Day Adventist; Ted Cruz is a dominionist. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2005, and was promoted to managing director shortly before her husband was sworn in as U.S. Senator.) [87793, 87958, 87959, 88064, 88177]

On Newsmax Prime , Dick Morris, political strategist and former advisor to Bill Clinton, notes that Fox News head “Roger Ailes was the main consultant to [President George H. W. Bush] and Fox has always had a bias in favor of [the] Bush [family]. Constantly. [Rupert] Murdoch [head of Fox News’ parent company, NewsCorp] has always tended to use his publications or his companies to promote his agenda, but until now he’s not done that with Fox News. I was on Fox News from 1997-2013. In that whole time, nobody ever asked me to push anything, oppose anything… Now all of a sudden every one of the Fox anchors is doing Rubio, Rubio, Rubio. You kind of scratch your head and you say ‘what is going on here?’ …[Murdoch] can do whatever he wants with [Fox News], but when [the anchors] promote themselves as fair and balanced, where in fact all they’re doing is echoing what their bosses are telling them to say, that’s pretty outrageous. As I said, when I was there at Fox they didn’t do that. The big difference is that Roger Ailes has lost direct control of the station to Murdoch’s family [Murdoch’s sons] that got put in there and now Murdoch is trying to play that game, like he always did with the New York Post .” [87779]

Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report at FoxNews.com, “At least a dozen email accounts handled the “top secret” intelligence that was found on Hillary Clinton’s server and recently deemed too damaging for national security to release, a U.S. government official close to the review told Fox News. The official said the accounts include not only Clinton’s but those of top aides—including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines—as well as State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and others. There is no public evidence they were authorized to receive the intelligence, some of which was beyond Top Secret. A second source not authorized to speak on the record said the number of accounts involved could be as high as 30 and reflects how the intelligence was broadly shared, replied to, and copied to individuals using the unsecured server.” Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom, tells Fox News, “My contacts with former colleagues and current active duty personnel involved in sensitive programs reveal a universal feeling that the HRC issue is more serious than the general public realizes. Most opine they would already be behind bars if they had apparently compromised sensitive information as reported. …[T]he intelligence community is undoubtedly conducting damage assessments and evaluating the viability of any ongoing

47 operation that may have been exposed to unauthorized personnel. The vulnerability of HRC’s server to foreign government hacking cannot be overlooked…” [87751, 87771, 87808]

DailyCaller.com reports on a 2009 email exchange between Marc Ambinder, then an editor of The Atlantic , and Philippe Reines, a Hillary Clinton assistant and adviser. “Ambinder asked Reines for an advance copy of a speech Clinton was scheduled to give at the Council on Foreign Relations. Rather than simply say yes or no, Reines cut a deal with Ambinder, turning over the speech provided Ambinder agreed to three conditions…” Ambinder agreed to all three, including a demand that Clinton’s speech be described as “muscular.” Politico.com’s Mike Allen appears to have agreed to the same demands. (In other words, the Clinton team was telling the media what to report and how to report it.) [87839, 87846, 87945, 88066, 88085]

On February 11 WashingtonPost.com reports, “Investigators with the State Department issued a subpoena to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation last fall seeking documents about the charity’s projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Hillary Clinton’s term as secretary of state, according to people familiar with the subpoena and written correspondence about it. The subpoena also asked for records related to Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide who for six months in 2012 was employed simultaneously by the State Department, the foundation, Clinton’s personal office, and a private consulting firm with ties to the Clintons.” [87796, 87844, 87845]

On Fox News, Judge Andrew Napolitano observes that Hillary Clinton was “reckless in the manner in which she sent out top secret emails, knowingly sending them to people who weren’t authorized to receive them. We know… that their acceptance, discussion and transfer of this is a felony. We know… that the FBI now has leverage; the Justice Department can indict her top aides and trade with them… [for] testimony against Mrs. Clinton in return for a deal with them.” [87817, 87818]

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Obama’s former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, tells DailyCaller.com, “I think Hillary Clinton, for the good of the country, should step down and let this FBI investigation play out.” Flynn, noting the Special Access Program (SAP) information found on Clinton’s private server, says the documents “had to be moved off electronically or removed out of the secure site physically, then it had to be put onto an unclassified email system. Someone who does this is completely irresponsible, but totally unaccountable and shows a streak of arrogance to the American public that is unworthy of anyone thinking they can run for President of the United States. This is unbelievable. I don’t think anybody should be talking about her being potentially the next President of the United States.” [87852, 87987, 87988]

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, in an address at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., says the Obama administration is trying to make it easier for poor Central Americans to enter the United States: “We are preparing to offer vulnerable individuals fleeing the violence in Central America a safe and legal alternate path to a better life. We are expanding our Refugee Admissions Program to help vulnerable men, women and children in Central America who qualify as refugees. We are partnering with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and non-governmental organizations in the region to do this as soon as possible. This approach builds on our recently established Central American Minors program,

48 which is now providing an in-country refugee processing option for certain children with lawfully present parents in the United States.” (Johnson does not mention the cost of the program.) [88034]

While Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter holds a press conference to discuss the fight against ISIS, Obama attends four fundraisers in California and his wife Michelle tapes an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ television program. According to CBS’ Mark Knoller, Obama has attended 459 fundraisers since taking office. (Obama has also met with members of Congress from time to time and held an occasional cabinet meeting.) [87797, 87798]

The Congressional Black Caucus endorses Hillary Clinton. [87819]

Donald Trump tweets, “We are getting reports from many voters that the Cruz people are back to doing very sleazy and dishonest ‘pushpolls’ on me. We are watching!” (A “push-poll” is not a poll at all; it is a rumor-spreading device. The recorded voice may ask one or two legitimate- sounding questions to make it sound like a poll, and then asks questions like, “Would you vote for John Doe if you knew he fathered a child out of wedlock and kept it a secret?” Rather than asking a few voters a multitude of questions to determine public opinion, the push poll asks only a few misleading questions of thousands of voters. Its goal is not to gauge public opinion; its goal is to discredit a candidate’s opponents. Of course, even “legitimate” polls can produce untrustworthy results, depending on how a question is asked. For example, these two questions would produce different results: “Do you support Bernie Sanders’ proposal to make college free?” “Would you support Bernie Sanders’ proposal to make college free if it means a five percent increas in your income tax rate?”) [87820, 87821, 87822] Those who believe Ted Cruz is the “perfect” conservative need to be reminded that he is as power-hungry as they come and will do whatever it takes to get ahead. TheConservativeTreehouse.com notes that in the 2014 Mississippi Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate, “The Washington DC based GOPe [GOP establishment], led by Senator Mitch McConnell [R-KY], ran racist attack ads against their own party candidate Chris McDaniel just to protect their incumbent cohort Thad Cochran. After McDaniel won more primary votes than Cochran, a run-off was needed. The GOPe through the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSCC), where Ted Cruz was a vice-chair member, then paid Democrats to vote in the runoff to aid Cochran.” McDaniel was the far more conservative candidate and gained more votes than RINO Cochran, yet the establishment worked against McDaniel in the run-off election. Cruz, who was more than happy to work with the Tea Party when it helped him win his Texas Senate seat, allowed the conservative McDaniel to be cheated out of a victory— with tactics that included paying Democrats $15 each to vote for Cochran. If Cruz were such a strong conservative and Christian, he would have raised a hug fuss over how the establishment schemed to deny the voters of Mississippi the right to a fair vote. [87823, 87824]

In addition, despite a claim from Cruz that “I will never get—nor do I want—money from the D.C. lobbyists or the special interest billionaires…” his campaign has collected money from the Club for Growth ($705,657), Goldman Sachs ($96,700), and various corporations and institutions. [87918, 87919]

Federal Reserve Board chairwoman Janet Yellen—apparently eager to double-down on failure— tells a Senate committee, “In light of the experience of European countries and others that have gone to negative rates, we’re taking a look at them again because we would want to be prepared in the event that we needed to add accommodation.” (The Federal Reserve is actually considering negative interest rates as a way to encourage money to be spent, rather than saved. The federal government and the Federal Reserve, having created an economic downturn with decades of deficit spending and absurd policies and regulations, now find themselves with no way to reverse it. The “old way” of boosting the economy has been to lower interest rates, which encourages investment and spending. But when interest rates are near zero, there is nothing left to consider but imposing negative interest rates. That is, the investor loses money on his savings. The “logic” is that money will be spent, and the economy will improve. The NIRP (negative interest rate policy) scheme is ridiculous. In addition to being arbitrary and anti-liberty, it distorts the economy because it encourages people to spend and invest money where they would ordinarily not spend and invest it. Further, it does not address the root cause of the economic problems: government and Federal Reserve interference in the private economy. Lastly, Yellen fails to recognize that NIRP policies have not been successful in Japan and in Europe. [87884, 87885, 87891, 87899, 88062, 88116, 88185, 88230, 88312, 88339, 88590, 88806]

Yellen (like most leftists), incorrectly believes that economic growth is driven primarily by consumer demand. An imposition of negative interest rates will, in her view, force consumers to spend rather than save, and the economy will magically improve. But she has it backwards. Economic growth is the result of private investment, innovation, new products, and efficiencies that lower prices. Economic growth requires savings and investment—and a negative interest rate policy works against savings and investment. As an example, corporations will respond to negative interest rates not by expanding their operations and creating jobs, but by buying up their own stock. Individuals will respond to negative interest rates not by taking money out of the bank to buy new cars, but by buying silver and gold and stashing it away to help them survive when hyperinflation strikes. (Gold futures climb to $1,247.90 per ounce by the end of the day. Note: This Timeline has no expectation that the federal government or the Federal Reserve will act wisely, and therefore owns gold and silver.) [87906, 88241]

It is worth noting the various proposals to eliminate paper currency and force everyone to use electronic debit and credit cards. By eliminating cash, the citizens are forced to empty their mattresses and piggy banks and deposit all their money into banks. Once the $1.4 trillion in currency is in the banks, a negative interest rate scheme can be imposed. Despite a century of price inflation, the largest-denomination bills have been eliminated by the U.S. government. That makes no sense, because price inflation increases the need for bills of larger denominations. The largest bill in circulation in the United States is the $100 bill—and there have been suggestions to eliminate even that. The government’s excuse for eliminating large bills is to “fight drug crime and terrorism.” But the real reason is to eliminate cash altogether and make everyone dependent on the electronic banking system—and give the government greater control over the citizenry. (Holding gold and silver is a solution, but only in the short term. In the long run, the government will order the confiscation of gold and silver, as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1933.)

Senate Democrats introduce legislation that would provide illegal immigrants with free (that is, taxpayer-paid) attorneys. [87895]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 15,660, down 254 points. CNSNews.com reports, “The federal government took in a record of approximately $1,079,224,000,000 in tax revenues in the first four months of fiscal 2016 (Oct. 1, 2015 through Jan. 31, 2016), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. That equaled approximately $7,169 for every person in the country who had either a full or a part-time job in January. …As it was hauling in these record tax revenues, the Treasury was spending approximately $1,239,615,000,000, and ended up the first four months of the fiscal year with a deficit of approximately $160,391,000,000, according to the monthly statement.” [87861]

FreeBeacon.com reports, “The White House has announced its partial opposition to a new bipartisan trade bill because of a portion of the legislation that would strengthen the U.S.-Israel economic relationship, according to a statement issued late Thursday. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, which the White House says it mostly supports, overwhelmingly passed on a bipartisan vote. …However, a portion of the bill that seeks to enhance U.S.-Israeli economic ties drew criticism from the White House, which announced that it would not support these new provisions. …Congress directed in the bill that the U.S. government work to strengthen its economic ties with Israel and boost efforts to combat international boycotts of the Jewish state. The Obama administration’s rejection of this effort comes on the heels of a controversial memo mandating that the U.S. trade community label Jewish goods produced in disputed areas of the West Bank. Elements of the pro-Israel community and many in Congress objected to this order, claiming that it encourages boycotts of the Jewish state. The Obama administration separately has endorsed a European Union effort to label Jewish goods, a policy that Israeli leaders have described as patently anti-Semitic in nature.” (This White House action is still more proof of Obama’s anti-Israel agenda.) [87830, 87831]

Breitbart.com reports, “Christians, homosexuals and women are fleeing asylum centres in Germany in ever growing numbers due to acts of violence, intolerance and crime perpetrated by Muslim men. According to German newspaper Die Welt , the violence toward ethnic minorities, religious minorities and women continues to skyrocket across German asylum centres. Muslim men tear up Bibles and assault Christians, sexually abuse women and children, and beat up homosexuals. The news has led to calls from human rights campaigners to say enough is enough.” [87833, 87834]

A Donald Trump rally breaks an attendance record at the River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. [87968, 87969]

In the Columbus suburb of Gahanna, Ohio, police shoot and kill a Somalian named Mohammad Barry after he injures four people with a machete at the Nazareth Restaurant & Deli—while screaming “Allahu akbar!” Pamela Geller notes, “The name of the popular Middle Eastern restaurant where the murderous machete attack took place is Nazareth—the childhood home of Jesus. The owner is an ‘outspoken Christian’ from Israel. Law enforcement said ‘there’s nothing to lead us to believe this is anything more than a random attack.’ Right off the bat they are saying it isn’t terror. Which means it’s terror. One witness told My Fox 28 Columbus that the scene in the restaurant was pure ‘carnage’ and it seemed like a ‘systematic attack.’” Another says, “He

51 had a look on his face that was [indescribable]. And it was just a lot of hate and anger, and I have no idea where the rage is coming from.” [87827, 87828, 87829, 87832, 87930, 88024, 88055, 88056, 88178]

According to WND.com, “Columbus is home to the second-largest Somali-American community after Minneapolis. …[T]he main route into the United States for Somali nationals is through the refugee resettlement program. The U.S government has since 1992 worked with the United Nations to permanently resettle more than 110,000 Somali refugees into dozens of U.S. cities…” Deli owner Hanyi Baransi, an Arab Christian from Israel, vows, “I am going to get a bigger flag, and I am going to get a Star of David necklace and put it on my chest, and I am going to get a tattoo. Honest to God, I am not kidding. They don’t scare me. We are Israelis. We are Israelis. We are resilient, we fight back.” (Baransi later decides to move back to Israel.) [87827, 87828, 87829, 87832, 87930, 88024, 88055, 88056, 88178, 88179]

At a $33,400-per-person fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama rails against income inequality. He says, “Despite all the progress we’ve made… what is true is that people are anxious. People are deeply concerned about inequality in the sense that the system is rigged against ordinary folks. And they’re not wrong.” (Obama does not explain what that “progress” may be. Since he entered the White House in January 2009 the gap between the “haves and the have not” has grown increasingly larger.) [87872, 87873]

Demosocialist presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Moderators are PBS’ Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff—neither of whom thought it was worth asking Clinton about Benghazi or the FBI investigation of her emails and the Clinton Foundation (the largest political slush fund in U.S. history). Ifill asks Sanders the despicable question, “Senator, do you worry at all that you will be the instrument of thwarting history” by preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming the first woman president. (She may as well have asked, “Are you ashamed that you do not have a vagina?”) Asked what parts of the federal government they would cut to save money, Sanders and Clinton both dodge and weave and fail to give specifics—because neither has any attention of cutting anything other than the military. Sanders pushes his free college scheme, declaring that students should not have to work “in factories and on farms” to pay for their tuition. (Sanders believes someone else should have to work to pay for that tuition.) [87837, 87840, 87841, 87849, 87850, 87854, 87858]

Sanders calls for an end to deportations, and says, “Bottom line is a path towards citizenship for 11 million undocumented people. If Congress doesn’t do the right thing, we use the executive orders of the president.” (Sanders is apparently unfamiliar with the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, “the power To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.”) [87859, 87860]

Both Clinton and Sanders suggest imposing the Social Security tax on income other than wages and salaries. (They provide no details, but it is assumed they mean an additional tax on capital gains and investment income.) [87862]

Clinton slams Sanders for criticizing Obama. He responds, “One of us ran against Barack Obama, I was not that candidate.” Nevertheless, Sanders avoids going after Clinton—apparently

52 fearing the Clinton machine. Her candidacy can be destroyed with a handful of statements and questions, yet Sanders treats Clinton with kid gloves. [87866]

Clinton claims her new spending proposals, amounting to about $100 billion per year, will be paid for with tax increases: “My price tag is about 100 billion dollars a year, and, again, paid for. I will not throw us further into debt. I believe I can get the money that I need by taxing the wealthy, closing loopholes, things we’re way overdue for…” (Of course, Clinton would still throw the nation further into debt, because even without her $100 billion in new spending the deficit will be at least $400 billion. Raising taxes by $100 billion to pay for $100 billion in new spending will do nothing to reduce that $400+ billion deficit.) [87863]

The debate is a sham. Both Woodruff and Ifill are in the tank for Clinton, who is asked no challenging questions. (One of the first items to get the axe in the next Congress should be PBS funding. It is absurd that the taxpayers should be forced to fund a leftist propaganda media outlet.)

On February 12 about 800 angry Greek farmers demonstrate at the Agriculture Ministry in Athens, in protest of higher taxes. They are then joined by thousands more protesters in Syntagma Square. [87975]

Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore drops out of the presidential race. [87904]

A national Morning Consult poll shows Donald Trump leading his rivals with 44 percent. Trump is followed by Ted Cruz (17 percent), Ben Carson (10), Marci Rubio (10), Jeb Bush (8), and John Kasich (4). Trump’s favorability rating is 67 percent; Rubio is at 62; Cruz is at 61. [87848, 87853, 87874, 87879]

In national Reuters polling, Trump leads with 39.8 percent, followed by Cruz (18.6), Marco Rubio (11.4), Ben Carson (8.7), Jeb Bush (7.2), and John Kasich (4.5). [87901]

An Opinion Savvy Poll in South Carolina gives Trump the lead with 36 percent; he is followed by Cruz (19), Rubio (15), Bush (11), Kasich (9). [87857]

A Southern Political Poll in South Carolina gives Trump 36 percent; Cruz 19; Rubio 15; Bush 11; Kasich 9; and Carson 5. (Trump leads even if all the Bush, Rubio, and Kasich “establishment” supporters were combined.) Trump leads in almost all demographic groups: age 30-44, 30.9 percent; age 45-64, 38.8; age 65+, 37.6; white voters, 36.5; black voters, 35.5; male, 37.6; female, 35.0; very conservative, 33.8; somewhat conservative, 38.3; moderate, 36.4; and somewhat liberal, 54.4. (Rubio wins the age 18-29 group with 35.8 percent; Kasich wins the very liberal Republicans with 38.4; Cruz wins the Hispanics with 38.3, but Trump manages a second- place 22.7 percent with that group as well.) [87902, 87903]

In a January 31-February 3 Siena Research Institute poll in New York state, Trump leads with 34 points, followed by Cruz (16), Rubio (16), Chris Christie (11), Bush (7), and Kasich (4). (New York’s primary is April 19.) [87856]

In an OvertimePolitics.com poll in Massachusetts, Trump leads with 43 percent, followed by Rubio (12), Cruz (10), Kasich (9), Bush (8), Carson (6), Christie (3), and Fiorina (2). [87877, 87878]

Donald Trump tweets, “If Ted Cruz doesn’t clean up his act, stop cheating & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen.” (Media critics immediately pounce on Trump for the message and ridicule him throughout the day. In the process, they do exactly what Trump wants them to do: highlight the fact that Cruz is running negative ads and that he was born in Canada. As usual, Trump plays the media like a fiddle. With one tweet—that cost him nothing—he managed to get his message across to millions of voters.) He later tweets, “Do Americans really want a Canadian-born president? First non native born in history?” [87880, 87894]

The Hillary Clinton campaign hires political analyst Zerlina Maxwell. (The Clinton team may not have thought through the decision to hire Maxwell. On December 6, 2014 she wrote in The Washington Post , “We should believe, as a matter of default, what [a rape] accuser says. Ultimately, the costs of wrongly disbelieving a survivor far outweigh the costs of calling someone a rapist.”) [87897, 87898]

With the overriding of a veto by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, West Virginia will become the nation’s 26th right-to-work state, effective July 1. [87876, 87887]

Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show , Obama says he declined an invitation to speak at his daughter Malia’s graduation “because I’m going to be sitting there with dark glasses, sobbing.” [87890]

WashingtonPost.com reports that over the previous few months the Democrat National Committee has “quietly” rolled back some restrictions on “federal lobbyists and political action committees.” (The policy change gives Hillary Clinton an advantage over Bernie Sanders, who is not accepting contributions from PACs. Observer.com later notes, “A joint fundraising committee between the Clinton campaign and the DNC—called the Hillary Victory Fund— raised $26.9 million as of December 31, 2015, much of which has gone directly to the DNC and other Democratic candidates across the country. Thirty-three state Democratic parties signed pacts with Ms. Clinton’s campaign, meaning she is essentially buying support from Democratic leaders around the country. In short, the Clinton campaign controls the money and decides which states receive it after the campaign and the DNC get their cut.” With the cash, Clinton essentially “buys” the “super delegates.”) [87864, 87875, 88169]

TheHill.com reports, “A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that kept a lid on a handful of documents related to a lawsuit from Congress over the Obama administration’s botched ‘Fast and Furious’ operation. The ruling does not necessarily mean that the eight documents will be released. Instead, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit merely referred the matter back to a lower court to seek clarity about another judge’s order.” [87872]

TheHill.com reports, “Senate Republicans are raising concerns that the Obama administration is preparing to interview a ‘surge’ of Syrian refugees, as part of the vetting process to potentially allow some to be admitted into the United States. A handful of Senate Republicans said Friday that the Judiciary Committee has learned that the administration is sending officials to Jordan to interview thousands of candidates for the U.S. refugee resettlement program. ‘The Administration’s refusal to suspend or even slow the pace of such refugee processing is particularly disturbing when reports abound of [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] terrorists intentionally inserting themselves into the Syrian refugee stream,’ the senators wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry. The senators added that according to what the committee has been told, the administration is sending between 200-300 officials to Jordan for at least 45 days.” [87928, 87929]

FoxNews.com reports, “A contractor who runs private detention centers for the federal government is providing free cell phones to some immigrant families upon their release from Texas detention centers so that they can reach people working on their case as well as relatives they plan to reunite with in the United States. …[S]ome are critical of the $11-million contract, which so far has issued 25 smartphones Galaxy 4.” [87981, 87982]

While Obama remains in California to attend fundraisers and play golf, his wife and daughters head to Aspen, Colorado—where air travelers are delayed because of increased security for the “first family.” (One passenger says he was initially told by the airline that his flight delay was due to a mechanical issue, but eventually he was informed it was because of Michelle Obama’s arrival.) [87892, 87912]

On February 13 Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the Archbishop of Cologne, warns about the persecution of Christians by Muslims in the refugee camps. He says, “Concern is growing that politicians and the authorities might not be taking such threats seriously enough. Christian persecution is not a topic of bygone ages.” [88233]

Donald Trump tweets, “The RNC [Republican National Committee], which is probably not on my side, just illegally put out a fundraising notice saying Trump wants you to contribute to the RNC.” “‘Get on Trump’s List’ email from the RNC was not authorized. I am self-funding my campaign! Do not pay.” [87907, 87908]

On Breitbart News Saturday Democrat pollster and strategist Pat Caddell slams the Democrats and the Republican elites for the trade deals which, over the years, have decimated manufacturing in the United States. “We’re about to have an epic battle over…economic nationalism and about the fact that America comes first. This hemorrhaging… of jobs is just destroying the middle class… We’re going to have a battle royal.” Of Hilary Clinton’s email scandal and the Clinton Foundation, Caddell says, “This is the greatest scandal in the history of the United States. They all ought to be indicted. This is worse than Watergate. …They were selling out the national interests of the United States directly to adversaries and others for money. There is just nothing that satisfies them [Bill and Hillary Clinton]. They are the greediest white trash I have ever seen.” [87923]

An additional 551 Hillary Clinton emails are released by the State Department; 81 are considered confidential and three are secret. (None are classified top secret.) [87916, 87917, 87943, 87987]

One of the newly-released emails, from Sidney Blumenthal to Hillary Clinton, suggests using photographs of Osama bin Laden’s body as a way for Obama to show up Congress: “This event should be staged over two or three days, occupying most of a work week, and continuing to dominate the public and congressional mind. Don’t let the photos serve as trophies; instead take the Congress as trophy using the photos. Here are the reasons: Having the members file through will provide testimony to [Obama’s] feat. They will be not only acknowledging but also enhancing his power. They will in effect become liegemen bowing before him, but not in any way they will resent or will protest. They will serve as witnesses to the magnitude of what he has done. Each of them will emerge speaking to the national and local press on what they have seen. Their words will be descriptive, but they will not be equivalent to graphic images that could be circulated themselves and have mischievous consequences.” [88005]

“Having the whole Congress see the photos would have these likely impacts as well: The far right-wing Tea Party Republicans would by their mere presence admit to [Obama’s] status above them and to his effectiveness. There would also be a salutary effect at the beginning of the negotiations on the debt ceiling. It would curb the ability of the Republicans to appeal to partisan sentiment and indulge in partisan rhetoric, giving the administration more edge.” (Obama did not act on Blumenthal’s suggestion, if he even knew of it.) [88005]

Another of the emails, dated March 19, 2011, is from sycophantic State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter to Hillary Clinton. Slaughter writes, “bravo! I cannot imagine how exhausted you must be after this week, but I have NEVER been prouder of having worked for you. Turning POTUS [Obama] around on this [Libya intervention] is a major win for everything we worked for. AM.” On March 22, Clinton responded, “Keep your fingers crossed and pray for a soft landing for everyone’s sake.” (Of course, there was no “soft landing.” The administration’s intervention resulted in the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and total chaos in Libya.) 88036]

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies in his sleep, apparently of natural causes—at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas, where his host was millionaire Democrat donor John Poindexter. Obama issues a brief, perfunctory and message on Scalia’s death. He expresses no emotion— except when he notes that he will “in due time” name a successor and challenges the Senate to quickly act on it. (There is arguably no reason for Obama to even bring up the issue of Scalia’s replacement. But the purpose of his remarks is not to express sympathy over the death of an ideological enemy; it is to tell the Republicans he is eager to engage in a political fight.) The Republicans argue that the next president should be allowed to name a successor. Obama is likely to nominate someone on the far political left; that will prompt the Republican-controlled Senate to deny confirmation. (Obama could select a moderate in order to have a better chance of getting his nominee confirmed, but the likelihood of Obama doing that are close to zero. The vacancy will therefore be an issue in the presidential campaign.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) states, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” (Obama has burned so many bridges between him and the Republicans in Congress

56 that the Senate is not about to give him the benefit of the doubt and be cooperative.) [87910, 87911, 87913, 87926, 87934, 87938, 87939, 87944, 87946, 87947, 87954, 87960, 87979, 88000, 88074, 88431, 88597]

Via despicable messages on Twitter and Facebook, leftists immediately applaud the death of Scalia and start hoping for the death of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. [87936, 87937, 87941, 87948, 87984, 87996]

At ForeignPolicy.com a shameless Rosa Brooks publicly celebrates the death of Scalia. She writes, “Prepare yourself for pious proclamations of sorrow. Justice Antonin Scalia, stalwart conservative voice on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1986, is dead! Flags will be at half-mast, and for a few days, at least, everyone will pretend to consider Scalia’s death a terrible loss to the Court, the country, and the global legal and judicial communities. The global legal and judicial communities, however, will mostly be indulging in joyful private choruses of ‘Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.’ Or maybe not so private. There was no love lost between Justice Scalia and foreign jurists. Scalia was famously dismissive of foreign and international law, which he considered good enough for, well, foreigners—but not for the great United States. ‘I doubt whether anybody [in the United States] would say, ‘Yes, we want to be governed by the views of foreigners,’’ he scoffed in 2005.” [87984, 87985]

HotAir.com notes, “Brooks is a New York born, Yale Law educated liberal who has written for numerous outlets. Beyond that, she’s done more than observe and comment on the government… she was part of it. As a member of the Obama administration, from early 2009 until July of 2011, she was Counselor to Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense. Then, in May of 2010, she was assigned a new position as Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy in the Pentagon. So what does this trusted stalwart of Barack Obama’s White House feel is an appropriate response to the passing of a member of the nation’s highest court? She chooses to deride him for not paying sufficient tribute to the laws of other nations, preferring instead to stick with the boring old United States Constitution.” [87984, 87985]

According to WND.com’s Aaron Klein, “Brooks serves as faculty director of Georgetown Law School’s Human Rights Institute. Brooks may have worked with [Sandra] Fluke, who co- founded a campus committee addressing human trafficking, according to her Georgetown bio. Brooks previously served as special counsel to the president at billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute. She has consulted for Human Rights Watch and served as a board member of Amnesty International USA.” [29942]

Also at ForeignPolicy.com, noting the contrasting images of Middle Eastern gays being thrown to their deaths off rooftops and American gays celebrating same-sex marriage, Brooks once penned what is perhaps the most incredibly inane and naive article ever written. She wrote, “Do you want to fight the Islamic State and the forces of Islamic extremist terrorism? I’ll tell you the best way to send a message to those masked gunmen in Iraq and Syria and to everyone else who gains power by sowing violence and fear. Just keep posting that second set of images. Post them on Facebook and Twitter and Reddit and in comments all over the Internet. Send them to your friends and your family. Send them to your pen pal in France and your old roommate in Tunisia.

Send them to strangers.” (Brooks stopped short of suggesting Hello Kitty greeting cards and CDs of James Taylor singing, You’ve Got a Friend .) [77221, 77222]

Scalia’s body is quickly embalmed and no autopsy is performed. Scalia’s death certificate is signed by Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara. Guevara claims, “It wasn’t a heart attack. He died of natural causes.” (How Guevara knows that is not explained. Without an autopsy the cause of death cannot be known with certainty.) [87951, 87970, 87979, 87999, 88008, 88063, 88079, 88532, 88533]

William Ritchie, former Washington, D.C. homicide commander, later comments, “You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician. You have a non-homicide trained U.S. Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack. What medical proof exists of a myocardial infarction? Why not a cerebral hemorrhage? …How can the Marshal say, without a thorough post mortem, that he was not injected with an illegal substance that would simulate a heart attack. Did the U.S. Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation? Did the US Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas.” [88079, 88532]

More than a few people will not be unhappy that Scalia died. This Timeline assumes, for example, that Scalia would vote that Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen if that issue came before the court. (If a lower court rules against Cruz and he appeals to the Supreme Court, a 4-4 tie would leave Cruz considered ineligible. Cruz would need a 5-3 or greater decision to salvage his candidacy—a task made easier without Scalia on the Court.) In Friedrichs v. California Teacher’s Association , a 4-4 tie would leave stand the union’s victory in the lower court. (In cases where the Justices have already voted but the decision has not yet been made public, Scalia’s vote is still valid.) [87977]

Knowing his Supreme Court nominee will not be confirmed by the Senate, Obama will survey the political landscape and choose someone who represents a Democrat voting block he wants to motivate for the November election. That is, if Obama is worried that blacks will stay home rather than vote for Hillary Clinton, he will select a liberal black judge—and dare the Senate not to confirm him or her. The Democrats can then spend months calling the Republicans racists for not approving Obama’s nominee. The nominee himself will be a pawn, used by Obama solely for political purposes. His identity will be irrelevant; Obama will simply tell his staff: “Get me the name of some sympathetic black judge to nominate.” (The nominee chosen by Obama—or, more accurately, chosen by Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett—will be a terrible pick, but the media will make him or her appear to be the perfect candidate—in an effort to turn public opinion against the GOP. Whether Senate Republicans will cave in or hold firm remains to be seen—but this Timeline is not placing any bets.)

Some will argue that the court vacancy works in favor of the Democrats, because they can portray the Republicans as obstructionists throughout the campaign season if they do not approve Obama’s nominee. Others will argue that the vacancy works to the advantage of the Republicans,

58 who will continually remind the voters that if they want the borders sealed and their Second Amendment rights protected they need to elect their candidate and stop the Democrat candidate from succeeding Obama.

Once again the Republican candidates debate, in a CBS broadcast moderated by smirking leftist John Dickerson. Donald Trump and Jeb Bush go after each other in childish exchanges, as do Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. (Trump is rude and obnoxious in his confrontations with Bush, making one wonder if he listens to his advisors—or even has any. Bush comes across as embarrassingly timid and insecure, asking Dickerson permission to speak: “Is it my turn yet?” “I get to speak now, right?”) Staying above the fray are John Kasich are Ben Carson. Whether that will change any candidate’s position in the polls remains to be seen. The debate is broadcast on CBS. The moderators ask questions that encourage arguments between the candidates, and a few of the questions are simply absurd. (“What question would you ask a former president?” “What three questions will you ask at your first meeting in the Situation Room?”) [87915, 87924, 87932, 87942, 87950, 87957, 88027]

When Cruz suggests that Trump does not have the temperament to be president and make sound decisions on Supreme Court appointments, Trump reminds the audience that Cruz was a vocal supporter of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts—who forced ObamaCare on the American people with his flawed ruling. (Cruz lies and denies that he was a Roberts supporter. BusinessInsider.com notes that Cruz has called Roberts “one of the best constitutional minds in the country,” and stated, “As an individual, John Roberts is undoubtedly a principled conservative, as is the president who appointed him [George W. Bush] But, as a jurist, Judge Roberts’s approach will be that of his entire career: carefully, faithfully applying the Constitution and legal precedent.” Cruz was wrong and Trump is right on the issue.) [87920]

Cruz pledges to rip up the nuclear deal with Iran if he is elected. (He is apparently unaware that Iran has already gotten back its $100+ billion.) [87924]

Bush says “We need to destroy ISIS and dispose of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad. Trump disagrees, arguing that the focus should be on ISIS because no one knows who or what would fill the vacuum if Assad is removed from power. [87924, 87933]

Jeb Bush falsely claims that while he was governor Florida had the fastest recovery of any state after the 2008 recession and that it was number one in job creation. Money.CNN.com notes, “[T]he U.S. economy had one month during the recession when unemployment was 10% or higher. Florida had 27 months above 10% unemployment.” Far more jobs were created in Texas than in any other state.) [87921, 87922]

Trump dusts things up by challenging Jeb Bush’s assertion that George W. Bush “kept us safe,” pointing out that he did not prevent the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and wasted trillions on the invasion of Iraq—which destabilized the Middle East. Trump says, “Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. All right? …George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.…I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass

59 destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction.” [87989, 88019, 88022]

The political pundits will declare that those remarks will harm Trump, but this Timeline believes many of them grossly overestimate the fondness the average Republican voter has for George W. Bush. (At OriginalAntiwar.com Justin Raimondo—no supporter of the candidate—later provides sound arguments supporting Trump’s claims.) Further, what the pundits fail to understand is that Trump is several steps ahead of them. He is already making his general election arguments, on the assumption that he has already won the GOP nomination with his “build a border wall” and “Make America great again!” campaign. He is not waiting until after the Republican National Convention to win independent and Democrat voters; he is addressing them now—by letting them know he believes the war in Iraq “was a big fat mistake.” (Whether Trump’s strategy is brilliant or foolhardy may not be known until November—but betting against him is probably not a good idea.) [88019, 88022, 88025]

Although his opponents charge that Trump is not a conservative, even CNN has called him conservative—as long ago as 1988, when he appeared at the Republican National Convention. According to CampaignMoney.com, Trump has donated $898,300 to candidates and political causes since January 2009. About two-thirds of his donations went to Republicans. His last contribution to a Democrat was in 2010. [87925, 88165]

On February 14 The Washington Post reports the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia under the despicable headline, “Supreme Court conservative dismayed liberals.” (If it had been Obama who died, there would certainly be national outrage if a conservative newspaper used the headline, “Oval Office Marxist Angered Conservatives.” The Post will get a pass.) [87935]

At NewsWithViews.com Kelleigh Nelson describes how Jeb Bush, when he was governor of Florida, oversaw abuses of the eminent domain practice. [87931]

In a CBS News/Battleground Tracker poll in South Carolina, Donald Trump leads Republican candidates with 42 percent. He is followed by Ted Cruz (20), Marco Rubio (15), John Kasich (9), and Jeb Bush (6). (Bush’ poor showing dispels the mainstream media’s notion that South Carolina is “Bush Country.”) [87949, 87962]

WND.com reports, “The seemingly quick conclusion that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died of ‘natural causes’ this weekend is prompting calls for an autopsy and toxicological reports by activists and across social media platforms. William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee, noted the media’s ‘rush’ to proclaim Scalia’s death in a rented room in a resort in Texas as either ‘natural causes’ or heart attack within hours of the discovery of his body.” Gheen states, “Anytime a head of state, member of Congress, or the most conservative member of the U.S. Supreme Court is found dead, an extensive autopsy and toxicology examination should be both immediate and mandatory. The horrid reaction and comments about his death expressed by many liberals online illustrate that Scalia was hated by many people. His death hands the power of the Supreme Court to the modern left for the first time in American history. The court can now vote, even without a replacement of Scalia, to radically change the United States of America. Scalia’s death means the Supreme Court is now

60 very likely to rubber stamp Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty orders, tear down Republican drawn districts in many states including North Carolina, and take deep left turns on abortion, gun rights, or anything the liberals have ever dreamed of. Scalia was a solid vote against Obama’s immigration orders to be decided by April of this year. We do not contend there is a conspiracy, we contend that there should be no doubts, and the way authorities and the media are rushing conclusions will leave major doubts and legitimate concerns about a death that could lead to a radical political transformation of America to the left.” [87951, 87997]

Actor James Woods tweets, “This could not be simpler: absolutely do not confirm an Obama SCOTUS nominee. Don’t discuss it; just ignore him, as he does the law.” (An Obama pick would signal an end to any hope of abortion restrictions; freedom of religion will be restricted further; campaign finance reforms could restrict free speech; gun rights would be at risk; and the death penalty might be eliminated.) [87971, 87980]

On ABC’s This Week , Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) calls for the Senate to allow Obama to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He says, “Let [Ted Cruz] show me the clause [in the U.S. Constitution] that says the president’s the president for only three years.” This is the same Senator Schumer who, in July 2007, said, “We should reverse the presumption of confirmation. The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice [John Paul] Stevens replaced by another [John] Roberts, or Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg [replaced] by another [Samuel] Alito. Given the track record of this president [Bush] and the experience of obfuscation at the hearings—with respect to the Supreme Court, at least—I will recommend to my colleagues that we should not confirm a Supreme Court nominee except in extraordinary circumstances.” (With Obama having less than one year left in the White House, Schumer wants him to be able to pick a new Justice. When George W. Bush had 18 months left to serve, Schumer wanted to block him from doing so.) [87972, 87973, 87974, 87990]

It is worth noting that, as U.S. Senator, Obama joined in a failed attempt to filibuster to block the confirmation of Samuel Alito. Obama also voted against the nomination of John Roberts. (Obama later tells reporters his effort to block Alito was a “strategic decision.”) In 1992, the Democrat-controlled Senate blocked virtually all of President George H. W. Bush’s various judicial nominees in order to allow Bill Clinton to fill them after he was sworn in. [87991, 88041, 88086, 88107, 88134, 88138]

Also appearing on This Week is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who claims Donald Trump “does not care about conservative justices on the court. You know, the one person he has suggested that would make a good justice is his sister, who is a court of appeals judge appointed by Bill Clinton. She is a hardcore pro-abortion liberal judge. And he said she would make a terrific justice.” (Politifact.com rates Cruz’s claim “mostly false.” “Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in New Jersey. …We think Cruz is referring to the fact that Barry wrote the majority opinion in a 2000 panel ruling that found a New Jersey law banning partial-birth abortions to be unconstitutional. …[But] Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative George W. Bush appointee, was also a Third Circuit judge at the time. He heard the partial-birth abortion case, too, and sided with Barry, arguing that the Supreme Court had ruled similar bans unconstitutional. So it seems a bit unfair to pin Barry as ‘hardcore pro-abortion’ based on this case alone.” [88053]

Although Trump has said “his sister would make a ‘phenomenal’ Supreme Court justice, …he was quick to say he wouldn’t appoint her.” Trump stated, “I think she would be one of the best, but frankly I think she is—we’ll have to rule that out now, at least temporarily. …But my sister obviously would not be the right person. It’s a conflict of interest for me.” In the February 13 debate, “Trump suggested Diane Sykes, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Bill Pryor, who sits on the 11th Circuit. Both are conservative George W. Bush appointees.” (Trump would not nominate his sister. But even if he did, the Senate could refuse to confirm—just as it could have refused to confirm as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was nominated for that position by his brother, President John F. Kennedy.) [88053]

On CNN, aging Marxist and calypso has-been Harry Belafonte tells Fareed Zakarias blames the “right-wing” on worsened race relations, rather than Obama—whose election “shocked a lot of racist forces in this country” and “awakened a right-wing energy.” “If you take a look at the way in which the right-wing movement in this country has gerrymandered voting districts, if you look at employment records, if you look at a lot of practices, black people are once again at the doorstep, the new wave of racist definitions and racist practices. …I think a lot of the hurdles, problems that Obama has faced is [sic; are] really very much based upon the fact that there is a force in this country that says no black man should ever be at the helm of this country.” (Belafonte does not explain why, if the nation is so racist, Obama was elected and reelected.) [87983]

Breitbart.com reports, “The chairman of the local Republican Party here confirmed to local television that 2016 frontrunner billionaire Donald Trump’s concerns—and those of his closest competitor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)—with the Republican National Committee (RNC) allocation of debate audience tickets are well-placed. Chad Groover, the chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party here, told WYFF—the local NBC News station—that party donors get tickets to the debate. …One well-placed source who works for one of the GOP presidential campaigns and was in attendance at the debate on Saturday evening here—but was not authorized to speak on record about the matter—told Breitbart News that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley were personally given scores of tickets to distribute. Both despise Trump and have said so publicly—Haley even using the platform of the official GOP response to the State of the Union to do so—and it would be no surprise if they did aim to stack the audience with anti-Trump sentiment.” [87955, 87978, 87986, 88004]

“…Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is calling for the RNC to drop all donor tickets and stop handing them out to special and monied interests entirely. Lewandowski says at all the rest of the debates from here on out, Spicer and the RNC must equally allocate all tickets among the various campaigns so they can distribute them equally and fairly to their supporters— and cut out all the donors and special interests who get tickets. ‘I think the RNC does a terrible job in allocating the tickets, to be honest with you, There’s an opportunity—there’s 2,000 seats out there, there’s six candidates on stage, they should just divide them evenly so everyone has them, but instead they just give them to the donor class, they give them to the lobbyists and to all the special interests,’ Lewandowski said in the spin room. ‘It’s not fair, it’s not equitable. So I think what they should do moving forward is take the total number of seats available, allocate

them across the board and let the candidates bring their people in, because that’s who should be here, not the donors.’” [87955, 87978, 87986, 88004]

Medium.com writes, “What we all watched was disgusting, as paid lobbyist[s] working for Jeb Bush and YES that is the Truth, we had two of our own people at the Debate and what they saw and heard would make you’re [sic; your] head spin, starting 15 minutes before the debate began, 5 text messages were sent to a group of 20 people who were planted in the audience, the third one of these texts said ‘Time to hang Da Donald, make noise.’ Then as the debate begin three of these lobbyists were comparing paychecks, one said they were paid $25,000 to make sure Da Donald had a Fuck up night. Throughout the two hour debate over 100 texts came into these people, one of these texts said ‘Make sure we cheer for Jeb and take out Da Trump.’ This is not how politics is suppose [sic; supposed] to work, these were paid hit people, being used to destroy a candidate, and we all got to watch it, luckily the American people are not dumb, most of us caught on quickly to the fact that something was going on, as the Twitter Verse lit up everyone making comments, about lobbyists, and as the night went on text were sent to these 20 paid assassins telling them to ‘Cheer for Marco make it look like he is cool quiet down on Trump some we got him.’” [87976]

“At the end of the debate one of our people followed 5 of these lobbyist[s], as they went into [a] corner and met with a man who handed them envelopes, when they left, our person asked one what was that about, the young man said ‘Pay day Bro, we nailed Trumps [sic; Trump’s] Coffin closed.’ Then he showed what was in his envelope, it was a stacked of $100’s [sic; 100s]. We have had people at every debate and most of the candidates [sic; candidates’] stump speeches, this is the first one where we have seen paid lobbyists, used to attack a candidate. Its [sic; it’s] time we change how politics is done, it is time we show the bad from the good, and its [sic] time that people like Jeb Bush feel the heat from the actions he took. South Carolina its [sic] up to you to show Jeb and his political buddies, that America is not hate not paid lobbyist[s] used to bring down someone, get out and vote and show Jeb that no matter how much big money he throws at you, that you won’t vote for someone like him. The time as [sic; has] come to really revolt, don’t care who you support just let Jeb know that you don’t support people like him in DC anymore.” (This Timeline is unable to confirm the accuracy of this claim. While it is quite likely that tickets to the debate were distributed unfairly, and certainly possible that Bush supporters were told to boo Trump, the odds that people were given envelopes of cash out in the open are close to zero.) [87976]

On Breitbart News Sunday writer Ann Coulter comments on the possibility that Senate Republicans may eventually cave in and approve Obama’s Supreme Court nominee: “Look, if they let somebody go through, I mean, I think Trump is going to win anyway but it’s just going to get him another ten million votes. …If this [Scalia death] had happened a year ago—we’ve seen how Republicans have behaved. They’re utterly craven. They would probably pass, or Senate Republicans would confirm whomever Obama sends up. They’d wring their hands. Senator Lindsey Graham [R-SC] would be leading the charge, talking about how it’s the president’s right to decide. Now that Donald Trump has come on the scene, I think Washington Republicans may be starting to get the message [that routinely caving in to the Democrats is not a good idea].” [88001]

Australian Associated Press (AAP) reports, “The Paris Pinacotheque, one of France’s rare privately owned art galleries, is to close as visitor numbers have plunged following the November shootings in Paris. The Pinacotheque, which has been under court receivership for three months, said that like all Paris galleries it had suffered a dramatic drop in attendance.” (Pamela Geller observes, “This is the purpose of jihad terrorism: to terrorize us, and force us to curtail our activities, and live cowering in fear until we submit to Islam altogether just to get the terror to stop. If the French government and European authorities were doing something to stop the Muslim migrant influx, which will only lead to more jihad, this closing would not have been necessary. Instead, watch for many, many more art galleries and other institutions to close.” [87965]

On February 15 Obama plays golf in Rancho Mirage, California—as the White House misses its deadline to provide Congress with a report on its strategy to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act. [88002, 88145]

Former President George W. Bush comes out of hiding to campaign for his brother Jeb in South Carolina. (The “establishment,” of course, wants the contest to be between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton—because it will not matter to Wall Street, defense contractors, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which of them wins. On July 11, 2015 DCWhispers.com wrote, “Initially during Mr. Trump’s rise in the polls the Bush team was dismissive, declaring it a momentary blip. As days turned to weeks though, and Trump supporters appear to be multiplying at a pace that even has people associated with the Trump campaign surprised, the Bush 2016 operation is now openly declaring it wants help with the what is being called, ‘The Trump problem.’ The call for help has even been issued to Jeb Bush’s seeming Democratic rival—Team Clinton. Apparently Bush operatives believe that between the two political dynasties and their many supporters among the Mainstream Media and corporate business world, the Trump threat can be quickly terminated before it grows into a legitimate challenge to the seemingly pre-determined Bush vs Clinton 2016 showdown. …Those concerns were said to be given some salve in the form of assurances from Bill Clinton during a personal call he had with Jeb Bush two days earlier. While most of that conversation remains private, Jeb did share with others that the former president reminded the would-be presidential hopeful that, ‘a lot of this Trump thing will be taken care of during your debates, if not sooner.’”) [87993, 87994, 87995, 88007]

At JihadWatch.org Hugh Fitzgerald writes, “Whatever threat Saddam Hussein posed in 2003 was not to the United States, not even to Kuwait (his clobbering in the Gulf War ended that dream), but only to his immediate neighbor, the hated enemy, with which Iraq had already fought an eight-year-long war, the Shi’a Republic of Iran. And Iran also happens to be America’s most dangerous enemy in the Middle East. …Many who supported the war felt that once Saddam was out of the way, Iraq could with Yankee Knowhow be turned into some kind of Peaceable Kingdom, unified and prosperous and democratic, and then become A Light Unto the Muslim Nations, with others following its example, so as to transform the Middle East and North Africa. These were people who thought that democracy could be transplanted, through purple-thumbed elections, without much fuss and practically overnight, to Iraq. They did not understand that democracy is a sensitive plant that requires a certain kind of ideological soil in which to flourish, from Locke and Montesquieu and many other political theorists. It requires in addition an Enlightenment that never appeared in the Muslim world, and an understanding that what

64 constitutes a government’s legitimacy is whether or not that government reflects, through elections (and often imperfectly) the Will Expressed By the People.” [88025]

“But there is no Muslim Locke, no Muslim Montesquieu, no Muslim Enlightenment. There is only the Qur’an, the Hadith, the Sira. And for Muslims, a ruler’s legitimacy is determined by the extent to which his rule reflects not the Will Expressed by the People, but the Will Expressed By Allah in the Qur’an. None of this was given a moment’s thought by those who were gung-ho for ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom.’” (The Islamic State explains its every action using the Quran, Hadith and sira. The Hadith is a collection of what Muhammad did and how he behaved. The sira is the biography of the prophet Muhammad.) [88025]

Fitzgerald continues, “…When Saddam fell, the position of the Christians worsened. Canon Andrew White of the Anglican Church in Baghdad was interviewed by Scott Pelley in 2007: ‘You were here during Saddam’s reign. And now after. Which was better? Which was worse?’ Pelley asked. ‘The situation now is clearly worse’ than under Saddam, White replied. ‘There’s no comparison between Iraq now and then,’ he told Pelley. ‘Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They’ve never known it like now.’ ‘Wait a minute, Christians have been here for 2,000 years,’ Pelley remarked. ‘Yes,’ White said. And this catastrophe for Iraq’s Christians was entirely predictable for those who understood why the Ba’athist Saddam Hussein, whatever he did to the Shi’ite Arabs or the Kurds, had no quarrel with the Christians, but was regarded by them as their Great Protector. With Saddam gone, the ‘real’ Muslims—and not just those of the Islamic State—started to attack Christians with impunity. The Christian population in Iraq went from 1,500,000 in 2003, when the American invasion began, to less than one-third of that, 500,000, today. And it is still falling.” [88025]

“…[W]hat have we achieved? Iran has been strengthened. Iraq is no longer safe for Christians; two-thirds of them have left. Ancient monasteries and churches that were in Iraq for millennia, witnesses to one of the earliest Christian presences in the world, have been destroyed up and down the land. The Islamic State got its fanatical start in Baghdad, became ensconced in Iraq’s Anbar Province, from there extended its ferocious power into Syria, and now has branch offices in Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Indonesia, where any day can be bombs away. That was not the ‘Light Unto the Muslim Nations’ that the Bush Administration had in mind when back in 2003 it kicked off its excellent adventure in Iraq with the ballyhoo of Shock and Awe. So you may have reason to prefer another candidate to Donald Trump. He may exaggerate, he may be wrong, about many things. But when he called the war in Iraq a ‘big fat mistake,’ he was not exaggerating, and he was not wrong.” [88025]

RT.com reports, “Persian Gulf states are seeking nuclear weapons to counter ‘bad guy’ Iran and have held clandestine meetings with Israel despite not having official ties with Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon revealed at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. ‘We see signs that countries in the Arab world are preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, that they are not willing to sit quietly with Iran on brink of a nuclear or atomic bomb,’ Ya’alon told fellow defense ministers on Sunday, the final day of the Munich Security Conference. Ya’alon did not name specific countries who might be interested in developing nuclear weapons and gave no evidence to back up his claims. However, he then made a surprise statement that the Gulf states—officially hostile to Tel Aviv because of its occupation of the West Bank—had held

65 clandestine meetings with Israel. ‘Not only Jordan and Egypt,’ he said, referring to the only Arab countries who signed peace treaties with Israel after three Arab-Israeli wars. ‘I speak about the Gulf states and North African states too. Unfortunately, they are not here to listen. For them, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood are the enemy. Iran is the bad guy for us and for the Sunni regimes. They are not shaking hands [with Israelis] in public, but we meet in closed rooms.’” [88268]

TheDailyBeast.com reports, “U.S. military analysts told the nation’s top intelligence official that their reports on ISIS were skewed and manipulated by their bosses… The result: an overly optimistic account of the campaign against the terror group. The complaints, lodged by analysts at U.S. Central Command in 2015, are separate from allegations that analysts made to the Defense Department inspector general, who is now investigating ‘whether there was any falsification, distortion, delay, suppression, or improper modification of intelligence information’ by the senior officials that run CENTCOM’s intelligence group. This second set of accusations, which have not been previously reported, were made to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). They show that the officials charged with overseeing all U.S. intelligence activities were aware, through their own channels, of potential problems with the integrity of information on ISIS, some of which made its way to …Obama. The analysts have said that they believe their reports were altered for political reasons, namely to adhere to Obama administration officials’ public statements that the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS is making progress and has put a dent in the group’s financing and operations.” (At FrontPageMag.com Daniel Greenfield observes, “This is dipping well into cover-up mode. This is beyond simple tampering with intelligence. Once records are being deleted, that’s a coverup.” Pamela Geller writes, “He [Obama] would sooner see Americans slaughtered than oppose jihadic doctrine.” [88059, 88060, 88061]

TheBlaze.com reports, “The Obama administration has approved the first U.S. factory in Cuba in more than half a century, allowing a two-man company from Alabama to build a plant assembling as many as 1,000 small tractors a year for sale to private farmers in Cuba.” (Why Cuban farmers cannot instead buy U.S-built tractors is not explained.) [87998]

Leftist blogger Amanda Marcotte, known for her absurd Twitter messages and crackpot feminist writings, tweets, “‘Lame duck’ is just the new ‘show me the birth certificate’: A way to convey a belief that Obama is not a legitimate President.” (The term “lame duck” precedes Obama by at least 200 years.) [88003]

CNSNews.com reports that, during a recent trip to Nevada, Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) called for an increase in the minimum wage to $30 per hour. “Should it be a goal? Oh, man, I am for that goal. I’m for a goal that everybody gets health care. I’m for a goal that everybody gets to go to college regardless of their income. And Latinos more than anyone else know that.” (A $30- per-hour minimum wage would, of course, result in monumental price increases across the nation. By the time the dust settled, Gutierrez and other economic ignoramuses like him would be whining that a $50-per-hour wage would be needed to keep up with the increased cost of living.) [88035]

Rush Limbaugh comments on the boos directed at Donald Trump during the February 13 debate: “[Trump] didn’t even have to say anything. He just opened his mouth, a couple of syllables and

here came the boos. And it did appear to distract him off the point that he was getting ready to make. I’ve never seen anything like that, that I can recall watching intraparty debates. I’ve never seen it on the Democrat side. I mean I’ve heard a smattering of boos, but I’ve not seen a whole audience stacked for the expressed purpose. And it was done specifically to make it look like no Republicans in South Carolina like Trump. They didn’t tell you the audience was a bunch of donors. They didn’t tell you the audience was a bunch of people that [sic; who] support amnesty. …The [television] audience was supposed to assume that in South Carolina, the Republican Party hates Trump. That’s what they were trying to create and [Trump] knew it.” [88004]

To an audience in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Trump comments on how the deck was stacked against him at the debate: “I have never met people like politicians. They are the most dishonest people I have ever met. They lie, lie, lie and then they apologize. …I signed a pledge [to not run as an independent if the GOP treats me fairly], but the pledge is not being honored by them. …They are in default of their pledge.” Trump calls Ted Cruz “the most dishonest guy I think I’ve ever met in politics. I think he’s an unstable person.” [88004, 88006]

Again Trump brings up the fact that Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen: “He doesn’t even have the right to serve as president, or even run as president. He was born in Canada. So I will bring that lawsuit if he doesn’t apologize [for false ads and statements made about Trump].” (Trump would be wise to files lawsuits challenging Cruz’s eligibility in as many states as possible. If even one state rules against Cruz and removes him from the ballot, he could hardly ignore the issue. If Cruz loses his appeals and takes the case to the Supreme Court, he would need a 5-3 or better victory to remain on that state’s ballot. A tie would leave the lower court’s ruling in place.) [88004, 88006]

At a press conference in Charleston, South Carolina, Trump is asked about illegal immigrant “dreamers.” He responds, “You know what I want? I want dreamers to come from this country. Okay? …I want the people in the United States that [sic; who] have children—I want them to have dreams also. I want the children [who] are growing up in the United States to be dreamers also. They’re not dreaming right now. And you look at African-American youth, I mean, 58 percent unemployment. You look at African-Americans and they’re 30 years old and they’re 40 years old, and we have an African-American president, and he has not done anything for the African-Americans in this country, okay? And he got a free pass. And he shouldn’t have, because if that were me or that were somebody else, we would be taken over the coals… believe me. …Obama has done nothing for the African-Americans. …And take a look at their statistics; it’s very sad.” [88014, 88015]

In a post-debate poll in South Carolina, Donald Trump leads with 35 percent. He is followed by Ted Cruz (18), Marco Rubio (18), John Kasich (10), Jeb Bush (7), and Ben Carson (7). Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 55-34, largely because of black voters. [88009]

Radio talk show host Michael Savage writes, “The question is, is it a conspiracy theory to ask questions that are so obviously in need of answer, or is it just common sense. And where is the common sense both in the press and the Republican Party. The answer is nowhere. …Now let’s add this to the puzzle, let us say god [sic; God] forbid the most extremist left-wing justice is found dead with a pillow over her head at a remote resort with no secret service and there’s no

autopsy. Let’s add a little bit more, let’s say the resort was owned by a Republican Party donor and a Donald Trump award winner. Are you kidding? Well that’s important for you to understand. Because we have a picture of Barack Obama shaking hands with John Poindexter. A Texas millionaire businessman, who is also a donor to the Democrat party, who also received an award from Barry Obama, related to his service in Viet Nam. You see, Mr. Poindexter, is the owner of the Cibolo Creek Ranch that Supreme Court Justice Scalia was found dead at this weekend. Did you know any of this?” [88010, 88011, 88018, 88023]

“Now the question is, if it was Poindexter who reportedly was among those who initially discovered Justice Scalia’s body, who then coordinated closely with local officials to have Justice Scalia declared dead via a phone conversation with the area medical examiner, but without an actual medical examination of the body, do you think the left would be screaming for an autopsy if God forbid it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Shall I give you a little bit more? Mr. Poindexter, the ranch owner who found Scalia’s body was also the primary point man between the ranch location and federal authorities who were slow to arrive on the scene. How come there’s been no request for an autopsy even though reports suggest that a Supreme Court Justice was found with ‘a pillow over his head,’ and he died alone without any witnesses. My friends, something stinks.” (Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett was vehemently opposed to Scalia because of his strong Constitutional views. If there was any “foul play,” Jarrett may have been involved.) [88010, 88011, 88016, 88018, 88023]

At WND.com Jerome Corsi writes, “Just as the Bush family is about to put on a full-court press to save the failing presidential candidacy of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Nixon confidant Roger Stone and co-author Saint John Hunt, son of Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, have published an exposé titled ‘Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family: The Inside Story of an American Dynasty.’ ‘Virtually every one of Jeb’s failed business enterprises is a carried interest in which he put up no cash but used his family name and connections to secure loans, financing, waivers, or other financially significant benefits,’ Stone and Hunt write. ‘No less than five of Bush’s former partners in these endeavors are in jail.’ …The authors report that the FBI was pulled off an investigation of the [Osama] bin Laden family and Saudi royals after George W. Bush was elected president, ignoring evidence that on Sept. 11 Shafiq bin Laden, an ‘estranged’ half-brother of Osama bin Laden, gave the Carlyle Group $38 million to manage. ‘It’s therefore not surprising that the BBC reported that FBI agents in London were pulled off an investigation of Bin Laden family and Saudi royals soon after George W. Bush took office,’ Stone and Hunt comment. ‘In addition to Osama Bin Laden, other members of the family had terrorist connections and were under investigation by the FBI.’” [88030]

“…Stone and Hunt write that Jeb Bush served as liaison for the Nicaraguan contras when his father was vice president, citing evidence in Pages 17-21 that Jeb was deeply involved with the CIA-led operation to traffic cocaine into the United States and sell it to raise money to fund the Nicaragua Contras after Congress cut off the funding with the Boland amendment. …Stone and Hunt cite the Cato Institute’s analysis of Jeb Bush’s term as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007. Cato documented that Florida general fund spending increased from $18 billion to $28.2 billion, or 57 percent, and total state spending increased from $45.6 billion to $66.1 billion, or 45 percent. ‘There is no reason to think his appetite for big spending would be any different in the White House,’ Stone and Hunt argue.” [88030]

The White House tweets: “Shoutout to @KendrickLamar and all the artists at the #Grammys working to build a brighter future. #MyBrothersKeeper.” (The White House eagerly congratulates a “gangsta rapper” on winning an award, but has yet to comment on the fact that six police officers were gunned down in the previous week.) [88042]

On February 16 TheGatewayPundit.com reports that the Jeb Bush campaign neglected to renew the domain jebbush.com. Purchased by an unknown Trump supporter, the entry of jebbush.com now directs the user to donaldjtrump.com. (Bush’s official site is jeb2016.com. Nevertheless, his campaign staff should have had the sense to retain the rights to related names.) [88020, 88021]

Ben Shapiro writes at DailyWire.com, “Trump’s supporters disproportionately like that Trump has balls. Mark Cunningham of the New York Post correctly surmises that the rest of the field and the media are ‘only now realizing that much of what Trump’s been doing is just busting balls. …It can be a test of manliness, a sign of respect, a way of bonding, and much more.’ And so far, all of the Republicans have failed at the ball-busting game. Trump has been telling them to get their shineboxes, and they’ve been struggling for comebacks. Americans are looking for a candidate with balls because they feel castrated. …Obama has spent eight years telling Americans that they are racist imperialists who have to get their testosterone in check. Hillary Clinton says that America must curb its mannish impulses, which result in anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-minority tendencies; Bernie Sanders says we must override our impulse toward economic explosiveness in favor of a kinder, gentler redistributionism—utilizing the government gun, of course. The media and Hollywood tell us that strong women don’t need men, that strong men are universally villains.” [88026]

“Trump’s candidacy represents a visceral response to all of that. He plays like an extra from a gangster movie. He makes ridiculous, over-the-top promises, then stamps them with his personal guarantee. He has never crossed paths with humility; he’s never seen a deal he couldn’t make, a project he couldn’t build. His opponents aren’t opponents—they’re enemies. Everything Trump does, he does big. Everything Trump does, he does bold. Trump is Joe Pesci in Goodfellas , and if somebody tells him to get his shinebox, he’ll call them a ‘motherf***er’ and then beat them to death. He’ll call Ted Cruz a ‘p****.’ He'll talk about Megyn Kelly bleeding from her wherever. He’ll talk about beating up protesters at his rallies. He’ll win for us because he’s willing to do anything. The more vulgar he gets, the more we like him. The brasher he gets, the more we like him. The more outrageous his promises, the more insulting his tone, the more he shouts over his political opposition, the more we like him. He has balls. Voters like balls.” [88026]

“…American politics wasn’t supposed to be a gangster film. It was supposed to be checks and balances to prevent anyone from consolidating all power. The goal of every gangster flick is monopolistic dominance of turf. The goal of American politics is avoiding such dominance so that Americans can be left alone. But after a decade of testosterone-free politics, the pendulum is now swinging back the other way. And there are a lot of Republican voters—and Americans— who want an unapologetic pair of balls more than a Constitutional conservative. After all, at least the balls won’t back down in the face of a fight.” [88026]

MSNBC announces it will host a town hall event with Donald Trump the evening of February 17; it will be up against a CNN town hall featuring Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson. (On February 18 Trump, John Kasich, and Jeb Bush will appear in a CNN-sponsored town hall meeting.) [88029, 88037, 88078]

WND.com notes that a CNN/YouTube debate for the Republican candidates on November 28, 2007 was peppered with questions from “plants.” Author Michelle Malkin identified several of them: “‘Concerned Undecided Log Cabin Republican Supporter’ David Cercone listed himself as an Obama supporter in a background profile he published on the Internet; ‘Concerned Undecided Mom,’ who asked a question about lead toys, was identified as LeAnn Anderson, a self-admitted activist for Democratic Sen. John Edwards and an endorser of the United Steelworker’s union; ‘Concerned Undecided Gay Military’ was Retired Brig. Gen. Keith [Kerr], who was on the steering committee of Veterans for Kerry and on Hillary Clinton’s LGBT steering committee, as well as a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ activist; and A You/Tube question asked by a woman identified on air as ‘Journey’ turned out to be self-identified on her personal blog as a 19-year old lesbian feminist who was a John Edwards supporter and an Anderson Cooper fan.” (The Republican Party never learns. It continues to allow the mainstream media to rig the system against them.) [88049, 88050, 88051]

In a national NBC News/Survey Monkey poll conducted February 8-14, Trump leads with 38 percent, followed by Ted Cruz (18), and Marco Rubio (14). All other candidates have less than 10 percent support. [88031]

In a CNN/ORC poll in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 56-38. (Sanders leads among white voters 54-40; Clinton leads among blacks 65-28, and women 60-33.) On the GOP side, Trump has 38 percent; Cruz, 22; Rubio, 14; Bush, 10; Carson, 6; and Kasich, 4. [88044]

In a national Reuters poll, Trump leads with 40.8 percent. He is followed by Cruz (16.9), Carson (11.5), Rubio (9.8), Bush (8.0), and Kasich (7.1) [88054]

Lifezette.com reports, “A group favoring increased immigration restrictions has launched a nearly $1 million campaign in Florida to ensure that the issue remains front and center during the state’s crucial March 15 primary. Candidates who might be hurt include a pair of Florida’s favorite sons. Jeb Bush has argued that more foreign workers would spur economic growth. Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, helped write a bill in 2013 that would have drastically increased foreign workers. His current platform emphasizes ‘work- and skill-based immigration.’ The campaign started last month and will run through February and possibly into March. It highlights Walt Disney World employees who lost their jobs in 2014 and then had to train foreign replacements to replace them. The effort will include radio and TV ads, along with an aggressive online component. It comes as a pair of fired Disney workers are pursuing federal lawsuits against the company and the consulting firms that recruited the replacement workers.” [88032]

Dozens of Disney workers were told they would not be given severance or bonus pay unless they stayed to train their replacements, and forced to sign confidentiality agreements. The H1-B visa program, which Bush and Rubio support, is supposed to enable U.S. companies to hire foreigners

70 who have specialized skills American workers lack. But the program has been widely abused, and the “establishment” seems content not to do anything about the abuses. [88032]

CNSNews.com reports the story of a Mexican who has entered the United States illegally three times and is now hoping for a fourth attempt. After being deported the first time, Jose Alberto Sanchez was arrested in Mexico for loitering. “…Mexican authorities then ‘sold’ him to the ‘mafia,’ or human traffickers, for $26 and then Sanchez paid the traffickers $400 for help getting back into the U.S. Sanchez made it across the border again but then surrendered once more because he was too exhausted to continue.” (That Sanchez was “sold” by authorities to human traffickers supports the claim by Donald Trump that Mexico is “not sending their best” to the United States. The suggestion is that Mexico is intentionally dumping criminals and other undesirables into the United States by paying the smugglers to get them across the border.) [88083]

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, threatens to subpoena the 10 U.S. sailors captured by Iran in January if the Obama administration does not release information explaining what happened. McCain says, “I guarantee you, if they don’t have a debrief by the first of March like they said, we’ll have a hearing and we’ll subpoena. We’re not going to wait any longer. We will subpoena the individuals if we have to.” [88033]

Secretary of State John Kerry meets with the heads of various Hollywood moguls at the offices of Universal Studios to “hear their perspectives & ideas of how to counter #Daesh [ISIS] narrative.” Pamela Geller writes, “Uh oh. Get ready for a slew of movies showing us how the Islamic State is not Islamic.” (Perhaps Kerry should meet with actors who have portrayed terrorists in order to “get their perspective.” The absurd meeting may remind some of the laughable 1985 meeting of the House Agriculture Committee which discussed the plight of American farmers. Rather than interview actual farmers, however, the Congressmen heard testimony from actresses Sissy Spacek, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and Jessica Lange—who had all played the wives of farmers in movies.) [88111, 88112, 88113, 88117]

In Mosul, Iraq, ISIS promotes its “religion of peace” with a public beheading of a 15-year-old boy for listening to “western music.” AraNews.net reports, “‘Ayham Hussein was captured by the jihadis while listening to Pop music at the grocery store of his father in the Nabi Younis marketplace in western Mosul. He was referred to the Sharia Court, which issued a decision to execute him,’ a spokesman for the Nineveh media center told ARA News.” [88115]

The Daily Mail posts an interview with Sally Perdue Miller, a former Miss Arkansas who had an affair with Bill Clinton in 1983. Among Miller’s revelations: Bill Clinton used drugs and was not a good lover, and Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. She says, “Bill didn’t mind telling me that Hillary doesn’t like sex. I take him at his word and he told me she liked females more than men. She was the child of a more progressive community. She was exposed to all the liberals; she was a flower child. Hillary does drugs too, that’s the only time that she would entertain the idea—again, this is what Bill told me. While we were intimately involved he would say things like ‘gosh you need to come over and teach Hillary a few things.’ …Do I make it a point to have affairs with married men, no. But most everyone in Arkansas assumed that their marriage was a business

71 arrangement. Bill never sounded like he was in love or locked into a loyal arrangement.” [88038, 88039, 88076]

“…Nothing happened in the Democratic Party when they were trying to get Bill into the White House that Hillary didn’t approve. She was the motivator, his bodyguard, and she continued to target me after the election. There is a vengeful, spiteful ugliness that some women have for other women. And there is a certain type of women who just has it in her genes to be nasty. Hillary is just one of those women. And she’s championing women’s causes? She will be the ruination of America if she becomes President. …I think the Clintons are capable of anything. Do I live in fear, no—because I’m armed too, I’m prepared. You have to be when you think perhaps your life is being threatened.” [88038, 88039]

Crazed radio host Glenn Beck says God allowed Justice Antonin Scalia to die so that voters would realize they have to elect Ted Cruz to save the nation: “I just woke the American people up. I, I took them out of the game show, uh, moment and woke enough of them up to say, look at what, how close your liberty is to being lost. You now have lost your liberty. You replace one guy [Scalia] and you now have, uh, uh, 5-4 decisions in the other direction. And just with this one guy, you’ve lost your liberty so you [had] better elect somebody that’s [sic; who is] going to put somebody on [the court who will uphold the U.S. Constitution] because for the next 30 years, if you don’t, the Constitution as you know it [is gone]. …The Constitution is hanging by a thread. That thread has just been cut and the only way that we survive now is, is if we have a true constitutionalist.” Beck has also claimed that Cruz was “raised for this hour” and that his candidacy makes him “more and more convinced in the hand of divine providence.” (Cruz supporters should be aware that the extreme religious statements made by both Cruz and Beck will be used by the Democrats if Cruz is the Republican nominee. He would be destroyed by the Democrats and mainstream media leftists. Cruz supporters should also be aware that the odds of God endorsing any particular candidate of either political party are zero.) [88039, 88040, 88147, 88214, 88215, 88216]

DCWhispers.com notes that Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, who worked part-time as chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority from 1995 to 2005, “had invested just over $11,000 into her CTA pension fund. To date, that fund has paid out to her over $300,000 and will continue doing so for the remainder of her lifetime.” (Jarrett receives a pension of $35,660 per year.) “[T]he CTA position was a likely [sic; likely a] reward for a job well done. Valerie Jarrett took care of business and kept her mouth shut, thus, it came as no surprise to find her given the $50,000 a year part-time position.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times , “Fifteen board retirees also get CTA-subsidized health insurance—another perk that comes at the expense of riders and taxpayers.” (Whether Jarrett is one of those 15 is not known.) [88045, 88046]

Speaking from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Rancho Mirage, California, Obama says, “The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now. When there is a vacancy, the president of the United States is to nominate someone. The Senate is to consider that nomination and either they disapprove of that nominee or that nominee is elevated to the Supreme Court. Historically, this has not been viewed as a question. There’s no unwritten law it can only be done in off years. I’m amused when people who claim to be strict,

72 reading into a series of provisions that are not there.” (Obama is once again posing straw man arguments. No one has said there is a question about the process, or that he cannot nominate a Justice, or that that the Constitution limits the dates of nominations.) “…I’m going to present somebody who is indisputably qualified for the seat. Any fair-minded person… would say they [sic; he or she] would serve with honor and integrity on the court. …I intend to do my job.” [88065, 88077]

Strangely, Obama says that as president he “is often responsible for not just the United States of America, but 20 other countries that are having big problems, or are falling apart and are going to be looking for us to do something.” (Obama is grossly mistaken. He is not responsible for the United States; his job is to enforce its laws and uphold the Constitution. He is certainly not responsible for “20 other countries,” and nowhere in the Constitution can he find anything remotely supporting that claim.) [88081]

Obama slams Donald Trump, saying the job of president is “hard.” “It’s not hosting a talk show or a reality show. It’s not promotion. It’s not marketing. It’s hard, and a lot of people count on us getting it right. And it’s not a matter of pandering and, and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day. And sometimes it requires you making hard [sic; difficult] decisions, even when people don’t like it, and doing things that are unpopular, and standing up for people who are vulnerable but don’t have some powerful constituency.” (Obama has clearly forgotten how he won the election in 2008—via promotion and marketing.) Obama insists, “I continue to believe that Mr. Trump will not be president. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people.” [88081]

Leftists will conveniently forget that on October 5, 1987 The New York Times recommended that the Senate block Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court: “The President’s supporters insist vehemently that, having won the 1984 election, he has every right to try to change the Court’s direction. Yes, but the Democrats won the 1986 election, regaining control of the Senate, and they have every right to resist. This is not the same Senate that confirmed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice and Antonin Scalia as an associate justice last year.” Following that logic, the Times should agree that the current Senate should block Obama’s nominee. It will not. [88069]

Adam Jentleson, deputy chief of staff for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-N), tweets, “The next step in this process will be for Senator McConnell to back down and give …Obama’s nominee a hearing and a floor vote” and “Senator McConnell will back down. That is a simple reality.” [88047]

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) implies he might cave in. He says, “I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions.” (The 82-year-old Grassley is running for reelection.) [88048, 88067, 88075]

On February 17 FoxNews.com reports, “Apple will fight a federal magistrate’s order to help the Obama administration break into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in last December’s deadly San Bernardino terror attack. In a statement posted on Apple’s website early Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook [ a leftist] said the order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ‘has

73 implications far beyond the legal case at hand.’ ‘We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good,’ Cook’s statement read in part. ‘Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.’” [88057, 88070, 88114, 88118, 88225]

It is reasonable to assume that the federal government would misuse de-encryption software developed by Apple to access the contents of the terrorist’s phone. That possibility could be avoided by destroying that software after the information has been obtained for the FBI. There is no logical reason for Apple not to cooperate—unless the government wants that software after it has been developed. The phone in question belonged to the county for which Farouk worked. Pamela Geller writes, “When I heard it was Farook’s work phone that the FBI wants Apple to break into, I had to laugh. I do not for [a] second believe Farook used his work phone to communicate with his jihad brothers, rather than his own private phone, which he destroyed. Obama’s FBI has been so dishonest and incompetent, I no longer believe they are being up-front and true in the battle with Apple. They screwed up on Garland, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, etc. Methinks they just want to be able to break into everyone’s phones. As one reader with expertise in the field pointed out, ‘if the FBI wants to get the information off the phone, they can ‘read in’—Apple downloads the data and gives it to the FBI. All the players know this but the FBI wants the information on how to break into the Apple encryption. This is wrong. It will open a can of worms.’” [88301, 88303]

According to TheDailyBeast.com, “in a similar case in New York last year, Apple acknowledged that it could extract such data if it wanted to. And according to prosecutors in that case, Apple has unlocked phones for authorities at least 70 times since 2008. (Apple doesn’t dispute this figure.) In other words, Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that Cook claims it is. In fact, it may have as much to do with public relations as it does with warding off what Cook called ‘an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.’” [88120, 88191]

U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler refuses a request from the NAACP and other groups to block an Alabama law requiring photo identification for voting. (Individuals will therefore have to present photo ID to vote in the state’s March primary.) [88176]

The White House announces that Obama will not attend the February 20 funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. (Obama will be soundly criticized for not attending—for at least 65 years no president has failed to attend the funeral of an active Supreme Court Justice. On the other hand, his absence means the family and friends of Scalia will be spared any partisan comments by Obama about a man whose ideology and beliefs he despised. The last “major” funeral Obama attended was Nelson Mandela’s—where he angered his wife Michelle by taking selfies with Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Perhaps it is better that he not attend Scalia’s funeral.) [88068, 88110, 88124, 88135, 88137, 88140, 88330]

Although Obama will not attend Scalia’s funeral, he plans to visit Cuba and Raul Castro on March 21-22. Obama states, “Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people.” (Some might argue that improving the lives of the American people should be a higher priority. Retired Captain Joseph R. John notes that when the Obama administration removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, both Obama and Hillary Clinton knew that the island nation had “an Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah radical Islamic terrorist training and operating base. …Before Obama removed Cuba from the list, he had to guarantee to the U.S. Congress there would be no terrorism activities that would emanate from Cuba…” Obama and Clinton lied—and most in Congress probably knew they were lying.) [88122, 88123, 88126, 88130, 88131, 88200]

The odds are high that the purpose of Obama’s trip is to discuss with Raul Castro the closing of the terrorist detainee center at Guantanamo. Obama is desperate to shut down the facility, but doing so with an executive order does little because his Oval Office successor could simply order it re-opened. But Obama may have plans to void the lease agreement with the Cuban government. (The U.S. military owns the facility but leases the land on which it sits.) Although the length of the lease is “in perpetuity,” that does not mean Obama will not try to void the agreement. He also knows Congress lacks the courage to impeach him if he voids the lease— without which the detainee facility could not be reopened.

DailyCaller.com notes a 1960 Senate Resolution passed by the Democrats, over the objections of the Republicans, that called for no recess appointments of Supreme Court nominees. According to GovTrack.us, “This vote approved a nonbinding resolution proposed by the Democrats to pressure President Eisenhower to not use the recess appointment power to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. The full title of the resolution was Expressing the Sense of the Senate That The President Should Not Make Recess Appointments to the Supreme Court, Except to Prevent or End a Breakdown in the Administration of the Court’s Business. Although the vote occurred in an election year, there is no indication that this vote was about election year appointments specifically. Eisenhower had used the special recess appointment power to make previous appointments to the Supreme Court, and Democrats objected to further use of the recess appointment power. No President has used the recess appointment power to appoint a justice of the Supreme Court since then.” (Obama has stated he would not make a recess appointment.) [88099, 88100, 88101, 88102, 88204]

That Justice Antonin Scalia’s death is so important demonstrates the fact that the Supreme Court has been given (and has appropriated) far too much power over the last few decades. Its job is only to rule on the constitutionality of laws, not make laws. Yet the politicians have increasingly relied on the Court to do what it has lacked the courage to do. For example, knowing the voters did not want unrestricted abortion, Congress let the Court improperly “legislate” the issue with Roe v. Wade . Knowing the voters generally oppose same-gender marriage, Congress let the Court “legislate” the issue with Obergefell v. Hodges . It is no wonder then that Democrats and Republicans alike are overly concerned with Scalia’s replacement. Democrats lack the votes to take away the guns of the citizens, but they hope the Court will do it for them. One man or woman will not just change the complexion of the Court, he or she may change the direction of the nation by abrogating the rights of its citizens.

To the surprise of no one, Hillary calls Republicans racists for not wanting to quickly approve Obama’s eventual Supreme Court nominee. Clinton tells a mostly black audience at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, “Now, the Republicans say they’ll reject anyone …Obama nominates, no matter how qualified. Some are even saying he doesn’t have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he’s not the real president. You know, that’s in keeping [with] what we’ve heard all along, isn’t it? Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about ‘takers’ and ‘losers.’ They demonize …Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country.” (A journalist should ask Clinton if then-Senator Obama was a racist and anti- Italian for voting against a white president’s nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.) [88071, 88072, 80082, 88093]

Clinton promises to help African-American communities by raising taxes on “every millionaire and billionaire in America,” using the revenue to make “direct, strategic investments in communities that have been left behind.” CNSNews.com notes that Clinton “made all the old, familiar promises: expanding pre-school; dismantling the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’; ending ‘excessive incarceration’; addressing re-segregation in the nation’s schools; making college affordable; ending ‘gun violence’; ending the ‘epidemic of African Americans being killed by police or dying in custody’; banning the box on federal job applications [not asking if the job applicant has a criminal record]; ending income disparities; and creating jobs in America’s inner cities.” (One of Clinton’s solutions to the problem of black poverty is to have the federal government hire ex-convicts.) [80082]

At the Harlem event, Clinton has another of her coughing fits—which will certainly lead to more speculation that she is not in good health. [88087, 88089, 88132, 88144, 88152]

DailySignal.com notes, “According to data published by the IRS and the U.S. Census Bureau, 44.2 percent of U.S. residents paid no federal income tax in 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available). …In 1962, the percentage of people who did not pay federal income taxes themselves and who were not claimed as dependents by someone who paid federal income taxes stood at 24.0 percent; it fell to 12.6 percent by 1969 before beginning a ragged and ultimately steady increase. …An astounding 33.67 percent of tax returns are filed only to claim benefits while not paying any income tax. That is up from 18.64 percent in 1990.” (That is, 33.67 percent file income tax returns in order to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit or some other benefit, yet pay no income taxes.) [88133]

At FoxNews.com Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report, “One of the classified email chains discovered on Hillary Clinton’s personal unsecured server discussed an Afghan national’s ties to the CIA and a report that he was on the agency’s payroll, a U.S. government official with knowledge of the document told Fox News. The discussion of a foreign national working with the U.S. government raises security implications—an executive order signed by …Obama said unauthorized disclosures are ‘presumed to cause damage to the national security.’ The U.S. government official said the Clinton email exchange, which referred to a New York Times report, was among 29 classified emails recently provided to congressional committees with specific clearances to review them. In that batch were 22 ‘top secret’ exchanges deemed too damaging to national security to release. Confirmation that one of these exchanges concerned a

76 reported CIA asset means the emails went beyond issues like the drone strike campaign.” [88073, 88136, 88141, 88156]

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) tells talk radio’s Laura Ingraham he will endorse the Republican nominee for president regardless of who it is: “I’m going to work with whoever the nominee is. And I’ve made that very clear to everybody …We want to add some substance to this conversation, and we want to earn from the public a mandate. Look, this is what I really wish we had done in 2012. …[Donald Trump] is giving voice to the real and sincere anxiety that is out there. People are very, very panicked that the country that they knew and loved is leaving them. That the opportunity is not in front of them but it’s behind them; the best days are behind and not in front of them. And that the political system, the people who’ve been in charge, have failed them.” [88153]

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorses Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for president. (Some political pundits claim the endorsement is significant. But in 2010 Haley endorsed Mitt Romney—who then lost the South Carolina primary to New Gingrich by 12 points. Jeb Bush had been hoping for an endorsement from Haley; he guessed wrong. Haley’s endorsement of Rubio essentially means that the GOP establishment has given up on Jeb Bush. It is unlikely that she would have endorsed Rubio without first having consulted with the party’s “higher ups.”) [88084, 88088]

Some suggest a Rubio-Haley ticket would be an imposing challenge for Hillary Clinton. But such a team would mean not just one but two Republican candidates who are not natural born citizens. When Rubio was born, both his parents were still citizens of Cuba, not the United States; Haley’s parents were still citizens of India. Legal challenges would most certainly be filed against the candidates. (Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, to Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa.) [88170]

In January, after criticizing Donald Trump in the GOP response to the State of the Union address, said, “I have disagreements with other presidential candidates. …Marco Rubio believes in amnesty, which I don’t. There’s lots of things.” Haley apparently forgot that Rubio had flipped on the amnesty issue and later had to update her statement: “What I said was that I didn’t agree with him—I meant what I didn’t agree with him was on the Gang of Eight bill. I said that he wasn’t for amnesty. That’s not what I meant. What I meant was that he supported the Gang of Eight bill and I did not.” [88219]

Meanwhile, WND.com reports that a lawsuit has been filed against Haley. “The suit seeks to halt all resettlement of refugees in South Carolina ‘until a full accounting of any and all federal money used in this program and specifically where it was allocated and how allocated (and) in which counties.’” [88096]

According to FoxNews.com, Princeton, New Jersey “is attempting to protect illegal immigrants from ‘really unfortunate’ arrests by publishing handouts in English and Spanish that encourage immigrants ‘to remain silent’ and ‘have a plan!’ if confronted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.” [88103]

DailyCaller.com reports, “A leaked report from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Agency reveals refugees committed over 200,000 crimes between 2014 and 2015. The report is only supposed to be seen by police and other government employees, but it ended up in the hands of Bild, a German newspaper, Deutsche Welle reports. What the document shows primarily is that refugees are responsible for 208,344 crimes.” [88205, 88229, 88231]

FoxNews.com also reports that Ibrahim al Qosi, a former aide to Osama bin Laden who was released from Guantanamo in 2012, has now “emerged as a prominent voice of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, appearing in a number of AQAP propaganda videos—including a 50-minute lecture calling for the takeover of Saudi Arabia.” [88119, 88184, 88310]

The Associated Press reports, “Belgian authorities say that searches in the wake of last year’s deadly attacks in Paris have uncovered video linked to a person working in Belgium’s nuclear industry.” [88180, 88181, 88186]

At Breitbart.com Anne Bayefsky reports, “Muslim prayers on Fridays at the United Nations headquarters in New York have begun taking up a large area next to the General Assembly Hall, shunning a designated ecumenical prayer area. …Muslim prayers at the UN have been operating for some time, though UN staffers are tight-lipped about when they began and who started them. …Today, one finds dozens of prayer rugs permanently set aside for use every Friday in the General Assembly building. The space is booked—the UN won’t say by whom—from 11:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and unavailable for anything else. Muslim prayers are now so popular that they spill into the path of public tours, with upwards of hundreds of shoes lining the halls. …American taxpayers recently contributed half a billion dollars to renovate the UN. Little do Americans know that their money funded space for Friday Muslim prayer services. …UN indoctrination isn’t subtle, and it isn’t cheap. With the Organization of Islamic Cooperation having colonized the place, perhaps it is about time somebody asked those wanting to be the next American president why we are paying for it.” [88108, 88109]

In a Quinnipiac poll in South Carolina, Donald Trump has a first-place lead with 39 percent; Marco Rubio has 19; Ted Cruz, 18; John Kasich, 6; Jeb Bush, 4; and Ben Carson, 4. [88080]

In a Bloomberg poll in South Carolina, the percentages are: Trump, 36; Cruz, 17; Rubio, 15; Bush, 13; Carson, 9; and Kasich, 7. Adding together first- and second-choice preferences, the number are: Trump, 46; Rubio, 39; Cruz, 33; Bush, 23; Carson, 20; Kasich, 16. [88098]

In a CNN/ORC poll in Nevada (which holds it caucuses on February 23), Trump has 45 percent. He is followed by Rubio (19), Cruz (17), Carson (7), Kasich (5), and Bush (1). [88091]

In a USA Today/Suffolk University national poll, Cruz leads Hillary Clinton 45-44; Trump leads her 45-43; Rubio lead 48-42; and Kasich leads Clinton 49-38. Bernie Sanders does slightly better than Clinton, leading Cruz by 2 and trailing Trump by 1, Kasich by 3, and Rubio by 4. [88092]

In a national NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted by public relations firm Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies, Cruz edges Trump 28-26. Rubio has 17 percent, Kasich 11, Carson 10, and Bush 4. (The poll is an outlier; it is also flawed. According to Prntly.com,

“The poll switched it’s [sic; its] approach from previous months and added tried and true Ted Cruz supporters ‘Very Conservatives’ heavily into the mix. If they remained with their old sample, Trump would easily win.” That is, it appears the poll increased the percentage of people surveyed who consider themselves “very conservative.” Essentially, that means the poll intentionally included in the mix a larger number of voters who label themselves very conservative. Whether the polling company had a valid reason for doing so is not clear, but the methodology tilts the results in favor of Cruz. Similarly, if a poll of Democrats goes after more college students with huge student loans, Bernie Sanders would be given a boost. In addition, only “400 Republican Primary Voters” were surveyed, which is hardly meaningful in a state poll, let alone a national poll. Although the media will hype the poll, it is meaningless.) [88094, 88106, 88107, 88151]

A February 1-7 NBC poll in Florida gives Trump a whopping 56 percent. He is followed by Cruz (22), Rubio (10), Bush (3), and Kasich (2). [88162]

Returning to Rome from a trip to Mexico, Pope Francis insults Donald Trump, saying, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. …As far as what you [reporters] said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that.” Trump responds, “The pope only heard one side of the story—he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting …Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation. …[Mexico is] using the pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant. …If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS …I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened.” (The Pope is an anti- capitalist and a socialist from Argentina. As such, he has no understanding of how wealth is created; he cares mostly about how it is redistributed.) [88148, 88150, 88210]

At Breitbart.com Ben Shapiro writes, “In Ciudad Juarez, one of the most violent cities in the Western Hemisphere thanks to the drug cartels, the pope walked up a ramp covered in flowers toward a cross ‘erected… in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone’s throw away,’ according to Reuters. Funny, he never did that while visiting Cuba to pay tribute to those who died attempting to escape that Communist hellhole. He reserved his spite for a nation with one of the most generous immigration policies on the planet.” [88149]

Interestingly, the mainstream media (and this Timeline ) treat the Pope’s comments as anti- Trump, even though all the Republican candidates are proposing a strengthening of border security and the completion of a border wall—which was authorized by Congress years ago. Clearly, however, the remarks are considered anti-Trump because most observers believe Trump is the only candidate who actually means what he says. It is believed that Trump will complete the wall and tighten border security, while every other candidate is only paying lip service to the issue to get votes. The fact that no one is treating the Pope’s comments as “anti-Republican” is revealing.

At PJMedia.com Tyler O’Neil writes, “There are many good reasons for Americans in general and Christians in particular to be hesitant about real estate tycoon Donald J. Trump, but the Donald is right about one thing—Pope Francis does not understand America. Francis is a great man, but he is somehow blind to the powerful engine of growth and well-being which elevated the United States above its competitors—the free market. Trump is Right About Pope Francis— He Doesn’t Get America. …[T]he Donald does get one very important point right, though perhaps it wasn’t even the point he was trying to make—Francis does not understand America’s problems, and that may be because the pope is too political.” (The Vatican is protected by a huge wall—constructed after Arab attacks on Rome in the ninth century—and it is assumed that Pope Francis is not currently sharing his quarters with any illegal immigrants, refugees, and drug dealers.) [88157, 88209]

On MSNBC, Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski host a town hall meeting with Donald Trump. (At the same time, CNN hosts an event with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson.) Asked by Brzezinski about Obama’s statement that Trump will not be president, Trump responds, “I tell you what, if I would have run four years ago, he wouldn’t be president right now. …He’s going to go down as one of the worst presidents in the history of this country.” [88139]

During CNN’s town hall event in Greenville, South Carolina, Ted Cruz is asked, “In order to prevent future controversy and possible litigation will you please justify, constitutionally, your legal right to be president of the United States as it relates to your natural born status?” Cruz responds with a lie: “The law under the Constitution and federal law have been clear from the very first days of the Republic. The child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen. …I was a citizen by birth by virtue of my mother’s citizenship. So, I have never been naturalized. I’ve never breathed a breath of fresh air on this planet when I was not a U.S. citizen. It was the act of being born that made me a U.S. citizen. …Under the law the question is clear. There will still be some who try to make political mischief on it, but as a legal matter this is clear and straightforward.” (Cruz is mistaken. It has never “been clear” that a child born overseas to only one U.S.-citizen parent is a natural born citizen. In fact, there are far more arguments and legal opinions against that claim than in favor of it. Historically, citizenship has been based on the nationality of the father if it differs from the mother’s citizenship. Further, the vast majority of the court cases and historical documents related to the issue state that the child must be born “of parents” who are U.S. citizens. The word “parents” is plural—which Cruz conveniently ignores.) [88155]

As noted numerous times in this Timeline , and as pointed out by attorney Mario Apuzzo (Kerchner v. Obama ), the Founding Fathers were familiar with and relied on Emerich Vattel’s Law of Nations . Vattel wrote, “The citizens are the members of the civil society: bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.” (Cruz was most certainly not “born in the country” and did not have two parents who were its citizens.) In Minor v. Happersett (1875), the Supreme Court wrote, “At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or

foreigners.” Various statutes exist with regard to generic citizenship, but citing those is improper when they do not include the term natural born citizen. If a statute says that Situation X makes Child Y a U.S. citizen, that does not mean Child Y is also a natural born citizen. One would be laughed out of law school for making such a claim. [88155, 88432]

Apuzzo notes U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark , which “explained that one born out of the United States to U.S. citizen parents, not being a citizen at common law can only be a naturalized citizen through a naturalization Act of Congress and that if it were not for a naturalization Act of Congress, he or she would be an alien and not a citizen.” In U.S. v. Perkins , the court noted Wong Kim Ark and confirmed that an individual “born out of the United States to a U.S. citizen mother… could not be a natural born citizen, but rather at most a naturalized citizen so made by naturalization Acts of Congress.” Montana v. Kennedy “explained that if a child is not born in the country, the child needs a naturalization Act of the sovereign authority to make that child for all intents and purposes a citizen and without such naturalization the child would be an alien.” In Rogers v. Bellei the court ruled that “a person born out of the United States to U.S. citizen parents can be a citizen of the United States only if Congress allows it through one of its naturalization acts and such person therefore becomes a citizen of the United States ‘at birth’ through naturalization without which the person would be an alien.” [88155]

Apuzzo writes, “Cruz is a ‘citizen’ of the United States ‘at birth’ by virtue of his birth circumstances which qualify him for the status only because a naturalization act of Congress (a positive law) says so, not by virtue of his birth circumstances alone. At best, he is a ‘citizen’ of the United States ‘at birth’ by the very text of the statute. He is a ‘citizen’ at birth of the United States, Canada, and maybe Cuba also. But he is not an Article II natural born citizen which could not under U.S. law possibly allow one to be simultaneously a citizen at birth of other nations. Renouncing his birthright Canadian citizenship as he did in 2014 does not nor can it retroactively change the birth circumstances with which he was born. He was not born with unity of citizenship and allegiance at birth and therefore the Framers would not have trusted him with the great and singular civil and military powers of the Office of President and Commander in Chief of the Military.” [88155, 88304]

“Cruz insists that he is a natural born citizen because he was not ‘naturalized.’ But… we do not validly get to the conclusion that Cruz is a natural born citizen by proclaiming that he ‘was never naturalized,’ when first, he has not satisfied the constitutional definition of a natural born citizen with its necessary and sufficient conditions, and second, we may have a different definition and perception from Cruz of what ‘naturalized’ means. Getting to one being a natural born citizen by saying one was not naturalized depends upon one’s definition of naturalization and not upon the definition of natural born citizen. Hence, the approach is not honest, for Cruz is not starting with the constitutional definition of a natural born citizen, which provides its necessary and sufficient conditions, but rather getting to the status by telling us that anyone who is a citizen and not ‘naturalized’ is a natural born citizen. The false game is one of pretending to define ‘naturalized’ instead of truly defining ‘natural born citizen’ under its constitutional definition. But Cruz’s argument that he was never naturalized is false, for I have shown that under all the laws of the United States, he was naturalized although at birth.” Apuzzo concludes, “Any lawsuit brought by presidential candidate Donald Trump against presidential candidate Ted Cruz on his not being a natural born citizen will be successful.” [88155]

At ThePostEmail.com author Alan Korwin later notes that Benjamin Franklin noted Vattel’s Law of Nations in a December 7, 1775 letter to Charles William Frederic Dumas. Franklin wrote: “…I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising state make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly that copy, which I kept, (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed,) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author. Your manuscript “Idee sur le Gouvernement et la Royaute” is also well relished, and may, in time, have its effect. I thank you, likewise, for the other smaller pieces, which accompanied Vattel…” (Franklin and several of the Founding Fathers were fluent in French.) [88432]

Regular Timeline readers are well aware that the Founding Fathers were familiar with the French language, Vattel’s Law of Nations and his definition of the term natural born citizen. In fact, they may also be familiar with Dumas. On June 14, 2012, Frederick William Dame posted an essay at TheCompleteObamaTimeline.com called The Colonial French Connection . Dame noted, “As a youth, John Jay (1745-1829), the first Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court (1789- 1795), learned French at the Huguenot community in New Rochelle, New York. …The statesman and founding father Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), who was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, learned French during his stay in the West Indies and ‘wrote and spoke (French) with the ease of a native (speaker).’” Dame noted in his 2012 essay that Dumas provided Franklin with “three original French copies of the Droit des gens; ou, Principes de la loi naturelle appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains .” Dame concludes that Franklin’s thank you letter to Dumas “alone refutes any, indeed, all concocted contentions that the Founding Fathers did not read the Droit des gens… in the original French and that they did not understand what they read. The opposite is true! It would be wise for any judge deciding the meaning of natural born citizen to understand that the Founding Fathers had command of the French language and accept it as fact.” [88470, 88471]

Ann Coulter writes, “Trump is the first presidential candidate in 50 years who might conceivably: (1) deport illegal aliens, (2) build a wall, (3) block Muslim immigration, (4) flout political correctness, (5) bring manufacturing home, and (6) end the GOP’s neurotic compulsion to start wars in some godforsaken part of the world. That’s all that matters! Are you listening yet, RNC [Republican National Committee]? There is not another candidate who agrees with Trump on all these positions. Maybe one issue, but not all of them—and if it’s immigration, they would be lying. Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) still refuses to say he’d deport illegal aliens (unless they’re arrested for breaking some other law), build a wall (instead he talks about ‘border security,’ which is code for: No Wall), or reduce legal immigration at all.” [88097]

“…Even if you think Trump is a libertine, shallow narcissist, you know he will do what no other Republican will: Go to Washington, kick ass, mock political correctness, build a wall, deport illegals, bring manufacturing home, and end the GOP’s peculiar fixation with remaking the Muslim world. This is our last chance. It’s similar to the ‘point of no return’ global warming alarmists keep talking about, except our data isn’t fake. At our current rate of immigration/transformation, if we don’t break the donor fever grip now, we never will. This kind

82 of correction isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. The GOP didn’t hear us with Eric Cantor, with the 2014 election or with John Boehner. After all that, they still gave us Nikki Haley and Paul Ryan. President Trump is the last and only message they will understand.” [88097]

On February 18 the Cruz campaign tries to defend itself over a “photograph” of Rubio shaking Obama’s hand in an ad that states, “Rubio cast the deciding vote to fast-track three highly secretive trade deals negotiated by Obama and encouraging corrupt, backroom deals.” Setting aside the fact that the text is grammatically nonsensical, the image is a poor Photoshop production. The original image was reversed (the two men are shaking each other’s left hand), and Rubio’s and Obama’s heads are placed over those of the original actors in the stock image. The Cruz campaign—which neglects to admit that Cruz also supported the trade deals—argues it is “common practice” to use altered images. [8127, 88128, 88129]

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio’s campaign spreads a rumor that Jeb Bush’s campaign is running out of money. The rumor is eagerly spread by TheResurgent.com’s Erick Erickson (who has sold his political soul in order to get television appearances). Erickson writes, “This is pretty remarkable. Sources close to the Bush campaign are beginning to leak about a call last night. I’m told the Bush team is out of money. Pay for campaign staff will end on Saturday. The campaign is all but over.” Bush campaign spokesman Tim Miller tweets, “There was no staff call. Desperate fake leak by Marco 2 press bc [because] his ballot stalled. Internals [internal polling] have Jeb/Cruz/Marco MOE [all three are essentially tied, with poll results within the margin of error]. Raised sig $ this wk.” [88166, 88167, 88168]

TheHill.com writes, “Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush insider and senior fundraiser, told The Hill—with his tongue firmly planted in cheek—that he was amazed that ‘Erick has better information than I do.’ …Another senior source familiar with the Bush fundraising and campaign machinery described the story as ‘complete bullshit.’ ‘F------Marco Rubio got a third place in Iowa and a fifth place in New Hampshire, and he’s trying to drive us out of the campaign. It’s ludicrous,’ the source said. ‘It's a f------civil war [with Rubio], that’s what it is. …Jeb Bush is a proud dude. …We are not going to announce to the world that the campaign will finish on Saturday.” [88166, 88167, 88168]

TimesUnion.com reports, “The [New York] state Board of Elections has received three objections contesting the ‘natural-born’ citizenship of presidential candidates and U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and/or Marco Rubio submitted in hopes of knocking them off the April 19 Republican primary ballot.” (The Board will almost certainly punt on the issue, claiming it lacks jurisdiction.) A legal challenge against Cruz has also been filed in Alabama. [88158, 88163, 88164]

In a February 15-17 Fox News poll Donald Trump leads in South Carolina with 32 percent. He is followed by Ted Cruz (19), Marco Rubio (15), Jeb Bush (9), Ben Carson (9), and John Kasich (6). [88195]

Trump leads with 35 percent in South Carolina in an American Research Group poll. Kasich has 15; Rubio, 14; Cruz, 12; Bush, 10; and Carson, 2 percent. [88197, 88198]

In a CBS national poll Trump has 35 percent; Cruz, 18; Rubio, 12; Kasich, 11; Carson, 6; and Bush, 4. Trump leads in almost all demographic groups. [88199]

At Breitbart.com, Manny Roman points out that Marco Rubio has been telling English-speaking audiences that he opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants but in Spanish tells Hispanic audiences that he supports it. [88196]

Congresswoman Diane Black (R-TN) writes Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and asks what the agency’s plans are for getting back the $750 million in ObamaCare subsidies improperly paid to 470,000 illegal immigrants. (Obama had promised that no illegal immigrants would receive ObamaCare benefits. He lied, because he knew there were not adequate procedures in place to prevent the fraud.) [88234, 88235]

House Democrats learn first-hand the problems that will be caused by the Obama administration’s coming requirement that overtime be paid to salaried employees who earn less than $50,440. (The prior amount was $23,600.) Many Congressional staffers earn more than $23,600 but less than $50,440. The rule change means that aides who work more than 40 hours per week will have to be paid overtime—and someone will have to keep track of the working hours and do the accounting. BNA.com writes, “House members ‘don’t have any surplus funding… but the funding is flexible, so what they would have to do is reduce the size of their staff or’ cut back on constituent communications, said [former Virginia Congressman Jim] Moran, now a lobbyist with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP. They might also consider eliminating a district office to afford overtime wages, he suggested. What chiefs of staff fear… is the prospect of being forced to send staff assistants and legislative correspondents home at 5 p.m. because the office can’t incur additional expenses.” (Members of Congress are now getting a taste of government medicine. The problems they face complying with the new overtime requirement will be experienced by businesses throughout the nation.) [88236]

FBI agents search the Corona, California home of Syed Raheel Farook; he is the brother of the San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. [88182, 88183]

TheDailyBeast.com reports, “Despite the growing threat from the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Libya, the Obama administration has turned down a U.S. military plan for an assault on ISIS’s regional hub there, three defense officials told The Daily Beast. …‘There is little to no appetite for that in this administration,’ one defense official explained.” (JihadWatch.com’s Robert Spencer writes, “This is the kind of action—and there are so very many of them—that makes people suspicious of Obama regarding Islam, even as the mainstream media continues to dismiss all such suspicions as ‘racism’ and ‘bigotry.’ Even if he is not a Muslim, he seems determined to advance the global Islamic agenda at every opportunity.”) [88187, 88188, 88259, 88260]

Hillary Clinton meets with Caesars Palace employees in Las Vega, Nevada. (Clinton again appears to be wearing eyeglasses with a fresnel lens on the left side, suggesting she is still struggling with double vision. With her occasional, extended coughing fits added to the scenario, speculation about the state of her health will continue. Of course, the candidate refuses to release her full medical records.) [88146, 88237]

Obama welcomes “black lives matter” activist and troublemaker DeRay Mckesson to the White House to help celebrate Black History Month. (This Timeline believes Mckesson’s goal is to become the nation’s number one race hustler after Al Sharpton dies.) [88218]

Laughably, White House press secretary Josh Earnest tells reporters that Obama now “regrets” having voted to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. (No reporter points out to Earnest that millions of Americans regret having voted for Obama.) [88154]

Earnest also provides reporters with a flimsy excuse for Obama not attending Antonin Scalia’s funeral: “As I also noted yesterday, Vice President [Joe] Biden, who is somebody that [sic; who] had his own personal relationship with Justice Scalia and his family, will be representing the administration at the funeral. Obviously, when the vice president travels someplace his security footprint is at least a little bit lighter.” (The excuse is pathetic. That Biden had known Scalia better than Obama is irrelevant; they can both attend the funeral. The security issue is also bogus. The reality is simply that Obama was ideologically supposed to Scalia and does not want to listen to remarks about how the Justice was brilliant and a man of integrity.) [88203, 88213]

Laura Wilkerson, whose son was tortured and killed by an illegal immigrant, casts an early ballot for Donald Trump and tells Breitbart.com, “Trump will get in there and do something about [immigration]. I believe him. I want someone in there who has said they’ll do it and will do it… So many people stay home because it doesn’t affect them, and I understand that. I was the same way until [my son] Josh was murdered. But at some point, we have to close the door and deal with who we have here before anyone else comes. …I gave no consideration to voting for Marco Rubio. He was a Tea Party darling, who flipped and did the exact opposite of what he promised to do get elected. I do not trust him for one second. He never said one word to me, even after I testified. He does not speak to the victims [of illegal alien crime]. …I know why [Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) threw his vote behind Rubio. Gowdy knows that Rubio is going to get in and do what he wants to do—which is open borders. Obviously Rubio wants more immigration, no borders. That’s what his backers want and that’s the way he’s going to vote.” [88159]

Hundreds of residents of Ravalli County, Montana attend a public hearing to support a letter to the Obama administration declaring that no Syrian refugees would be welcomed for “resettlement.” According to WND.com, “Wyoming is the only state that does not participate in the federal refugee program. Montana has not received any refugees since 2009 and only 61 have been sent there since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. So when news broke that a plan was afoot to bring Syrian refugees, 98 percent of whom are Sunni Muslim, to the western rancher state, it set off alarm bells for many residents. They held a protest rally on the Missoula County courthouse steps Feb. 8 that attracted 120 people in a blowing snow storm. …It was against that backdrop that Thursday’s public hearing in Ravalli County was held. Interest was so high that the meeting had been moved three times to accommodate the ever-growing crowd. It was eventually decided to hold the meeting in the gymnasium of a local junior high school. The crowd erupted in a standing ovation when the unanimous vote came down in favor of sending the letter.” [88227]

Of Pope Francis’ anti-Trump comments, Wilkerson says, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Pope say one thing about our families [families who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrants]. I’m not sure he understands the loss we have felt. Is he just ignoring that? It rubbed me the wrong way. …I am a Christian, and I have sympathy for everyone. I think God asks me to love everyone. He created us all equal, but I do not think God is asking me to help a whole country. I don’t think I can do that. I do not think he wants us to give up our family—because that’s what has happened. It tore my family to shreds. I had a solid, 25-year marriage, and we lost our last child. I had a take-your-kids-to-church-small-bussiness-obeyed-by-all-the-rules family. And this tore it to shreds. There’s nothing about me that’s racist or non-sympathetic. I don’t care who you are, I want to help you, but not at the expense of my own family.” [88159]

It is worth noting that Catholic Church organizations in the United States receive a mountain of taxpayer money from the federal government in contracts and grants, much of it to run homeless shelters, food banks, etc. Many of the refugees from Central America and the Middle East that the government is bringing into the United States are handled by Catholic organizations. To the Catholic Church, open borders means keeping that cash flowing. [88161]

Reverend Franklin Graham writes, “The Pope has suggested that Donald J. Trump is not Christian because he wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. He said, ‘A person who thinks only about building walls wherever they may be and not building bridges is not Christian.’ I agree that as Christians we should try to build bridges with everyone that we possibly can, but that doesn’t mean that we should compromise our national security. Donald Trump isn’t the only one who wants to build a wall—other Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, and John Kasich as well as millions of Americans, also want to build a wall—in order to protect America from enemies who want to use the U.S./Mexican border as a way to enter our country and do us harm. Are they not Christian either? My advice to the Pontiff—reach out and build a bridge to Donald Trump. Who knows where he may be this time next year!” [88290]

Observer.com reports, “On Sunday, Russian TV host Dmitry Kiselyov, who enjoys the largest audience among news programs in Russia, announced in his prime-time program News of the Week the launch of a new documentary, whose goal would be to expose corruption in the U.S.— as opposed to the familiar story in Russian he’s sick and tired of talking about. ‘This is not fair— to forget about American corruption,’ he declared, ‘about how they get fat on the money of American taxpayers there .’ The title of the film—Emperor Obama —says it all, but the trailer, lasting more than 10 minutes, was shown anyway.” (Among other things, the film reports on the tremendous cost of the Obama family’s many vacations.) [88160]

Asked by CBS anchor Scott Pelley, “Have you always told the truth?” Hillary Clinton responds—with lies: “I’ve always tried to. Always. Always. …[Y]ou’re asking me to say, ‘Have I ever?’ I don’t believe I ever have. I don’t believe I ever have. I don’t believe I ever will. I’m going to do the best I can to level with the American people.” (NationalReview.com’s Jonah Goldberg observes that Bill Clinton “is the Michael Jordan of lying. Lots of people can score baskets. But Jordan was in a class by himself both for his skill and his ability to make it look fun. …Hillary lies as much as Bill, but she’s more like Larry Bird; she gets the job done, but no one would call it graceful. …Hillary Clinton is a lawyer who lies. Bill Clinton is a liar who’s a lawyer.”) [88206, 88212]

Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Jeb Bush appear in a CNN-sponsored town hall meeting in South Carolina. Each is interviewed separately by Anderson Cooper and each is asked questions for the audience. The format is much better than the so-called “debates: as the candidates are not limited to 60-second responses and their personalities are more evident. Kasich does better than Bush, and Trump does better than Kasich. [88029, 88037, 88078, 88171, 88172, 88173]

During the town hall event, an allegedly “undecided” voter in the audience asks Trump about his criticism of George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. The “undecided” Oran Smith is, according to TheConservativeTreehouse.com, “the head of The Palmetto Family Council and CEO of Palmetto Public Square… Do you remember the recent faith and freedom conference at the controversial Bob Jones University? Well, THAT’s Oran Smith’s group. Which included special attendances by candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson. …Dr. Oran Smith is anything but an ‘ordinary south Carolinian voter, who has yet to make up his mind.’ It is absurd in the extreme to contemplate such a proposition. It’s a complete line of ridiculous propaganda even beyond the scope of CNN’s customary narrative advancement.” Not only is Smith a “plant,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper helps him out with notes that reference Trump’s past statements about the war. Smith has also previously appeared as a guest on CNN—which Cooper neglects to mention. (CNN and the GOP rely on at least one other audience plant, a lobbyist named Heather Smith.) [88172, 88173, 88174, 88175, 88208]

On February 19 body language expert Janine Driver appears on the Today program and comments on Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Marco Rubio. Driver notes three shoulder shrugs during a Clinton statement: “We have the hat trick of shoulder shrugs right here. A shoulder shrug is uncertainty. So when you’re saying a definitive answer, ‘listen I’m doing this not for me, I’m doing it for the public’ and I shrug, it cancels out your message. A shoulder shrug is uncertainty.” NBC’s Natalie Morales, clearly unhappy with the suggestion that Clinton might not be sincere, asks, “Is that [those shrugs] a sign of humility maybe though?” Driver: “No, it's always uncertainty. …She’s imploding here.” Morales quickly asks to discuss Trump. Driver suggests that some of Trump’s hand gestures are “connected with people who think outside of the box. Creative thinking. That’s why you get someone from the real estate industry running for president. That’s why you get a man who is going to be on the front lines talking to the border patrol. He’s going to think outside the box. Creative thinking. If you want someone that [sic; who] has that strategy with creativity, Donald Trump might be that guy.” Morales, who does not like that observation either, says, “We’re not letting politics get into this. It’s just you reading the body language.” [88255]

The body of Justice Antonin Scalia lies in state at the Supreme Court building. Obama and his wife attend—for a minute or two. (A photograph of Obama walking on the White House grounds is then released. He carries a thick binder—supposedly “a binder full of Supreme Court nominees.” No doubt the intention is to get the nation to believe Obama cannot attend Scalia’s funeral because he will be absorbed in choosing a replacement Justice, rather than watching ESPN or playing golf.) [88192, 88220, 88221, 88222, 88223]

Vice President Joe Biden tells The Washington Post , “I can live with either one of them [Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton]. I can support either one of them, I just have a different sense of how

87 we should be talking about the issues that face us, to enhance the possibility that we keep the White House. …I think both Hillary and Bernie are basically on the same page, with different emphasis, on college, Wall Street, the one percent, civil rights, etcetera. What I don’t think they’re spending enough time doing is pushing back on the story line that what we did to get us to this point was a failure and a mistake.” (Translation: “I will be running for president and blaming George W. Bush for the economic mess we are still in.”) [88193]

Donald Trump wins his battle with the Pope, as Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi states, “This wasn’t in any way a personal attack, nor an indication of who to vote for. The Pope has clearly said he didn’t want to get involved in the electoral campaign in the US, and also said that he said what he said on the basis of what he was told [about Trump], hence giving him the benefit of the doubt. …The Pope said what we already know, if we followed his teaching and positions: We shouldn’t build walls, but bridges. He has always said that, continuously. 'He also said that in relation to migration in Europe many times. So this is not a specific issue, limited to this particular case. It’s his generic view, coherent with the nature of solidarity from the Gospel.” [88207]

“Rock-ribbed conservative” Joan Swirsky explains why she “Supports Donald Trump 100%.” She writes that “only Mr. Trump is raising the biggest issues facing our country, among them: Closing our borders, which are being flooded with un-vetted illegal aliens who number, by now, into the millions; Bringing both corporations and jobs back to America; Fixing our Mt. Kilimanjaro of debt and Mt. Everest of unemployment; Strengthening our military… All the while, Mr. Trump’s competitors and critics carp and whine about his ‘bluster,’ ‘naiveté,’ and ‘crudeness.’ Wasn’t President Teddy Roosevelt accused of bluster? Wasn’t President Ronald Reagan accused of being naive? Wasn’t the liberals’ hero LBJ accused of crudeness? These are trifling criticisms, as are the accusations that Mr. Trump is ‘not a true conservative’ and that in the past he was, gasp, a liberal. Well, we’ve given the self-described conservatives the entire House and Senate and they’ve failed us, so it’s time to give a born-again conservative a chance!” [88122, 88217]

“…The political criticisms Mr. Trump has been receiving from the establishment wonks at National Review, Rupert-Murdoch’s puppets at Fox News, the hysterical and frenzied Republican National Committee, and leftists all over the place, are from people who operate in the rarefied and self-congratulatory realms of academia, the media, and of course Washington, D.C.––including the politicians who go out for drinks every night with the lobbyists they depend on to support their reelection campaigns and pay them enough to live quite richly in retirement. In common parlance, they’re known as whores! That same American public, through their earnest efforts, managed to elect a Republican-controlled Senate and House in the 2014 midterms, only to realize that the people they elected have caved in to every Marxist initiative of the Saul-Alinsky-driven regime in power. We’ll never know to what degree threats, intimidation, and bribes played in this craven capitulation, but Americans finally understand they’ve been betrayed––hence the overwhelming support for a candidate who is absolutely impervious to bribes, threats, and intimidation.” [88122, 88217]

“…[Trump] said he believed that ‘any credible American foreign policy doctrine should be defined by at least seven core principles’: American interests come first. Always. No apologies;

Maximum firepower and military preparedness; Only go to war to win; Stay loyal to your friends and suspicious of your enemies; Keep the technological sword razor sharp; See the unseen. Prepare for threats before they materialize; Respect and support our present and past warriors. That is strength… that is Leadership! …As for me, I’m as conservative as it gets, but Conservatives have failed me and our country. I’m counting on Mr. Trump to fix what’s been broken, to keep our country safe and employed and on the road back to a spectacular recovery!” [88122, 88217]

Former Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) tells the Fox Business Channel’s Neil Cavuto that Ted Cruz “doesn’t have a single senator supporting him. If that doesn’t speak volumes to the voters of South Carolina… He’s self-absorbed. He’s got this giant ego. He’s overly ambitious. He entered the senate as a Canadian citizen.” (Cruz entered the U.S. Senate as a Canadian citizen and is serving illegally. Although he renounced his Canadian citizenship one year later, in 2014, he has yet to produce any documentation proving he ever became a citizen of the United States, such as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad—which his mother should have requested when he was born in Canada. If that form was not obtained, Cruz never became a U.S. citizen. Further, he cannot be considered a natural born citizen of the United States because that status cannot be dependent on the completion of a form and the subsequent naturalization process. If the form exists for Cruz, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who can legally serve as senator but not as president. If the form does not exist, he should be expelled from the U.S. Senate.) [88238, 88242, 88304]

Earlier in the week Dole said, “I question [Cruz’s] allegiance to the party. I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’—not very often. …I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress. Nobody likes him. …If he’s the nominee, we’re going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures.” Dole believes Donald Trump is the only person who can defeat Cruz. (Dole is no great fan of Trump either; he supports Jeb Bush.) [88242]

Republican establishment strategist and Bush family lackey Karl Rove addresses a luncheon meeting of Republican governors and warns them it would be a disaster if Donald Trump wins the nomination. According to NYTimes.com, “At a meeting of Republican governors the next morning, Paul R. LePage of Maine called for action. Seated at a long boardroom table at the Willard Hotel, he erupted in frustration over the state of the 2016 race, saying Mr. Trump’s nomination would deeply wound the Republican Party. Mr. LePage urged the governors to draft an open letter ‘to the people,’ disavowing Mr. Trump and his divisive brand of politics.” [88527, 88560]

Breitbart News interviews former Marine and current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council President Chris Crane. Crane states that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) “never reached out to us [while working on the “Gang of Eight” immigration legislation]. He surrounded himself with big business and amnesty groups, most of which were more interested in cheap labor and their own political agendas, and had no real concern for the welfare of immigrants, public safety, or the security of our nation. This while he ignored boots on the ground law enforcement officers who work within our broken immigration system every day and know better than any what’s needed to fix it. Common sense dictates that law enforcement be at

89 the table when creating a bill like this. I think Senator Rubio knew that, but actively chose to exclude us because of his own personal agenda.” [88224]

Crane explains that, just hours before the bill was introduced, Rubio met with Crane—after having been pressured by Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to do so. Crane says, “[E]ven though I had requested to bring someone with me, Senator Rubio denied the request and demanded that I come alone, which I still believe was highly peculiar and inappropriate. He, of course, had what appeared to be his entire staff in his office with me. Most of his staff stood behind me as there was no place for them to sit. I raised a series of strong concerns with the bill, and as I raised each issue, Senator Rubio would look to his staff and ask if that was what the bill said. Each time his staff agreed with my interpretation, and Senator Rubio would shake his head in disbelief and indicate the bill had to be changed. …Obviously the changes I suggested were all serious enforcement related issues, such as establishing a biometric entry-exit system, and cracking down on sex offenders, gang members, violent criminals and other criminal aliens. When I walked out of his office that night I definitely thought the bill would undergo significant changes, but of course absolutely no changes were made. …Not one of the changes we suggested was made to the bill before Senator Rubio introduced it. …All of his strong statements during our meeting about making the changes we suggested were apparently all just a dodge to get rid of me. It quickly became obvious why he didn’t permit me to take anyone with me to the meeting—he didn’t want any witnesses.” [88224]

Crane describes the press conference held by Rubio and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) to announce the legislation: “I was polite, professional and respectful at all times. I didn’t interrupt anyone or cause a scene. The press was there, but Sen. Rubio and the rest of the Gang of Eight had also filled the large room with amnesty supporters and open borders people to cheer and applaud the Gang of Eight every time they said something. It was a real dog and pony show, sort of a circus. …When the floor was opened to reporters to ask questions, I too politely raised my hand and asked, ‘Will you take a question from law enforcement?’ The amnesty folks immediately started making hateful comments like: you’re not welcome here, you need to leave, you have no right to speak here. A commotion took place on the stage with the Gang of Eight Senators. Senator Rubio did look directly at me, and it appeared that he told Senator [Jeff] Flake [R-AZ] who I was. Yet, despite having looked directly at me, Sen. Rubio did absolutely nothing to allow me to ask a question on behalf of the nation’s ICE officers, sheriffs and front line law enforcement. I was able to ask the same question approximately two more times, before a Senate staffer accompanied by Capitol Hill police approached—demanding that they escort me out.” [88224]

“As I was escorted out by police, some within the amnesty groups applauded, laughed at me, and made hateful remarks. Once police escorted me outside of the main room, police informed me that I was not free to go and that I was to be taken somewhere for questioning. As a law enforcement officer I knew that their actions met the legal standard for an arrest. At that point I demanded to know the charges against me and why I was being arrested. Television cameras, reporters and microphones came swooping in, and as they did the Senate staffer scurried away like a cockroach, leaving the Capitol Hill police on their own. I was allowed to leave the area, but I think it was only because the police were afraid to handcuff me with reporters filming them.” [88224]

“Senator Rubio and the Gang of Eight stood there and watched it all happen. Any one of them could have jumped to the mic and yelled for the Senate staffer and the police to stop what they were doing to me, but none did. Senator Rubio just stood their silently and watched it happen. I am told that Senator Rubio later stated that I should not have been removed, but he never reached out to me to say that or apologize. …If it had been [Facebook founder and cheap foreign labor advocate] Mark Zuckerberg in the crowd asking questions the Gang of Eight Senators would have been tripping over themselves to kiss his backside, but as a normal citizen without the means to filter money into their campaigns they had me forced out by police.” [88224]

Crane continues, “As ICE officers, we wrote a letter to Congress expressing strong concerns with the Gang of Eight bill. The letter was endorsed by approximately 150 Sheriffs, to include Sheriff Sam Page of the National Sheriffs Association Border Security and Immigration Committee, as well the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers and other law enforcement groups. Law enforcement officers were screaming for help from the Gang of Eight to make changes to the bill that would better provide for public safety and national security, but the Gang of Eight ignored all of them. The Gang of Eight not only ignored law enforcement, but actively fought to keep our input out. Only wealthy special interests like the Chamber of Commerce were permitted to be a part of the process. It was dirty D.C. politics at its worst. …Protection from deportation, a type of de facto amnesty, came almost immediately as the first step in a much broader amnesty like process provided in the bill. There was no real promise of border security in the bill, and the bill provided nothing for interior enforcement, but instead made legalization of criminal aliens and gang members a priority. People need to understand that this bill was written by pro-amnesty and open borders groups that have no concern for America’s borders or the safety of its communities. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the bill was such a lopsided mess.” [88224]

“…People need to wake up. We can’t continue to keep taking millions of the world’s criminals without expecting serious repercussions to public safety and expense and burden to our legal system. Local and state jurisdictions are already overwhelmed by the criminal alien problem in our country. To turn this around and get things back under control, the U.S. must take the opposite approach. We must send criminals back to their countries. Especially sex offenders. I can’t understand why any lawmaker or special interest group would support legalizing sex offenders, but it shows how out of control the bill really was. …Violent street gangs were literally able to lobby Senator Rubio and the Gang of Eight more effectively than law enforcement, they had more influence on the bill than we did. Gangs were able to get provisions in the law to protect themselves. It’s absolutely insane. What on earth are our lawmakers thinking? I think it’s this type of utterly stupid lawmaking that has caused most Americans to lose faith in Congress.” [88224]

“In my opinion, Senator Rubio absolutely knowingly mislead the American people regarding the bill. He was not telling the American public the truth about what that bill contained. Every American will have to determine on their own what that says about his character, but for me I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust him again. …Senator Rubio has never done anything to help ICE officers do their jobs. With less than [sic; fewer than] 5,000 officers in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Senator Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill

91 provided zero additional ICE officers and zero new resources for ICE officers to enforce U.S. immigration law on the interior of the U.S. This as almost half of all immigration violators entered the U.S. legally and overstayed their visas, so they would have never come in contact with the Border Patrol. So with a force half the size of the Los Angeles Police Department, ICE is tasked with apprehending and deporting over 11 million illegal aliens spread across the entire U.S. But Sen. Rubio and the Gang of Eight gave ICE no additional resources. Why? Because they don’t want interior enforcement. Or I should say the Chamber of Commerce and other special interests involved in writing Sen. Rubio’s bill don’t want interior enforcement.” [88224]

Rubio responds to the Breitbart interview with Crane, complaining to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, “Yeah, number one, that’s not true, he’s not an ICE official he’s the head of a union, and it’s being reported on a web site that’s not a credible source…” (Translation: “I can’t call Crane a liar because he is telling the truth, so I will instead ridicule the news outlet that interviewed him.”) [88282]

Meanwhile, DailyCaller.com reports, “Multiple U.S. Customs and Border Protection bases near the Mexico border have ‘inoperable’ security cameras and other serious security gaps, according to a new federal watchdog report. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found four border posts where agents live and work for a week at a time that have inoperable cameras, which increases their chances of suffering a security breach. Some posts also have inadequate access controls, and CBP doesn’t conduct consistent security inspections of the facilities. …The CBP bases are located in important—and often dangerous—places along the U.S.-Mexico border, the IG said. The west Arizona desert area where one base is located is ‘very active in illegal cross border activity involving aliens and narcotics,’ CBP officials noted in their official response to the report.” [88228]

While the Obama administration allows illegal immigrants to enter the United States almost unhindered, Sweden is going broke dealing with its migrant crisis. According to Breitbart.com, “A Swedish economist, researcher, and business professor has calculated the total cost of the migrant crisis for 2015 for Sweden, and has reached a “conservative” lifetime estimate of around 600 billion Swedish Kronor [about $71 billion]. Stockholm University associate professor Jan Tullberg has looked beyond the immediate costs of merely receiving migrants and their initial impact—extra policing, higher social benefits—and claims to have found the true cost of just one year’s migration. Taking the claims of the Swedish government at face value has calculated what these ‘new Swedes’ will cost the state from now until they leave the country or die, which ever [sic; whichever] comes first.” (Sweden’s defense budget is about 40 billion Kronor per year.) Sweden is now known as the “rape capital of the West,” and has 55 “no-go zones” which the police will not enter without adequate back-up and bulletproof vests. [88264, 88265, 88267, 88297, 88298, 88299, 88300, 88379]

ABCNews.go.com reports, “The password for the San Bernardino shooter’s iCloud account associated with his iPhone was reset hours after authorities took possession of the device. The Justice Department acknowledged in its court filing that the password of Syed Farook’s iCloud account had been reset. The filing states, ‘the owner [San Bernardino County Department of Public Health], in an attempt to gain access to some information in the hours after the attack, was able to reset the password remotely, but that had the effect of eliminating the possibility of an

92 auto-backup.’ Apple could have recovered information from the iPhone had the iCloud password not been reset, the company said. If the phone was taken to a location where it recognized the Wi-Fi network, such as the San Bernardino shooters’ home, it could have been backed up to the cloud, Apple suggested.” [88254]

ABC also reports, “[T]he the FBI has still not ruled out the possibility that a third militant was at the scene of the [San Bernardino] slaughter… In the immediate hours after the Dec. 2, 2015 shootings, some witnesses told law enforcement officers and reporters that they saw three gunmen at the center. But by the end of the day, the FBI had issued a statement saying there were only two confirmed shooters, local residents Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. Farook worked with many of those he gunned down at the party. …Some eyewitnesses including Sally Abdelmageed, who works at the center in San Bernardino, told the media back in December that she saw three attackers with black military attire and vests.” [88261, 88262, 88263]

On February 20 funeral services are held for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Obama does not attend. Donald Trump tweets, “I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go!” [88272, 88273, 88283, 88316]

TheGatewayPundit.com posts video of a young Bernie Sanders being arrested at a protest in Chicago in 1963. (Sanders has never held a good job outside government, has virtually no assets, and has a mountain of credit card debt. His only discernable “skill” seems to ranting about “the one percent” and promising to redistribute the wealth of others if he is elected.) [88239, 88240]

In the Netherlands, a man is arrested for wearing a pig hat. (Offending Muslims is apparently against the law. The White House has no comment.) [88337, 88338]

In Leopoldsburg, Belgium, Muslim refugees riot when a woman refuses to wear a headscarf. Eleven are arrested. Secretary of State for Asylum, Migration and Administrative Simplification, Theo Francken, states, “I find it totally unacceptable that some young Afghans find it necessary to tell Syrian girls to wear a headscarf and that they should not dress like western girls. They come here, they are guests here. We are not theirs. They have to adapt to our rules.” JihadWatch.org’s Robert Spencer writes, “You’re saying that now, Francken? Are you aware that the migrants have no intention whatsoever of adapting to your rules? No, of course you don’t, and neither do your colleagues. And therein lies the problem.” [88340, 88341]

The Democrats hold caucuses in Nevada; the caucuses for the GOP will be on February 23. In South Carolina, Republican primary voters go to the polls; the Democrat primary will be on February 27. (There are unconfirmed reports that the Ted Cruz campaign is making “rob calls” to spread the false rumor that Marco Rubio is dropping out of the race.) [88244]

Hillary Clinton defeats Bernie Sanders in Nevada, by about 53-47 percent. In South Carolina, Donald Trump scores a victory, with about 33 percent of the vote. He is followed by Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who each have about 22 percent, John Kasich (8 percent), Jeb Bush (8),

93 and Ben Carson (7 percent). Despite losing, both Rubio and Cruz essentially give victory speeches. [88245, 88246, 88251, 88252, 88253, 88269, 88270, 88274, 88284, 88285]

In his victory speech, Donald Trump says, “I will take him [South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Henry McMaster] over the governor [Niki Haley] any time… because we won!” (McMaster endorsed Trump; Haley endorsed Marco Rubio.) [88281]

Jeb Bush announces he is suspending his campaign. [88248]

Before the polls closed, the Rubio campaign was allegedly calling voters to tell them Bush was dropping out and to vote for Rubio; the Rubio campaign charges that the Cruz campaign had been spreading rumors that Rubio was dropping out. [88321]

At one caucus location in Nevada, some Clinton supporters are improperly allowed to vote despite not being registered voters. [88250, 88266]

According to exit polls in South Carolina, 73 percent of the voters support a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States; 46 percent would like the next president to be an outsider; 92 percent are angry or dissatisfied with the way Washington is working; the most important issues are terrorism (32 percent), the economy and jobs (28), government spending (27), and immigration (10). Interestingly, only 7 percent say Donald Trump “shares my values”—the lowest percentage of all the GOP candidates—yet he finished in first place. Trump wins 30 percent of the evangelical Christians, followed by Cruz (29), Rubio (23), Carson (7), Bush (6), and Kasich (4). [88249]

Media pundits who oppose Trump repeatedly remind their readers and viewers that if he won 33 percent of the vote in South Carolina, that means 67 percent of Republican primary voters oppose him and he therefore cannot win the nomination. Trump ridicules that in his victory speech, reminding everyone that as other candidates drop out of the race there is no reason to believe he will not gain some of their former supporters. What the pundits ignore, however, is the fact that while 67 percent of the voters did not support Trump, 78 percent did not support Cruz, 78 percent did not support Rubio, 92 percent did not support Bush, etc. The pundits are assuming that Trump is not the second or third choice of most voters, but polls have shown that not to be the case. In addition, Trump wins all but two counties, one of which includes Columbia, the state’s capital. It is not illogical that Trump would lose to Rubio in that county, because so many state workers and Republican establishment voters live there. In the rest of the state Trump wins handily, capturing the male vote, the female vote, the young and the old, the poor and the wealthy, the high-school educated and the college educated. Trump’s appeal is spread across all demographics—despite efforts by the Rubio campaign and others to suggest Trump’s supporters are all “fat,” “racist,” white trash,” and “trailer trash.” (Whether Trump will win the GOP nomination and the November election remains to be seen, but it is absurd that so many pundits claim he will not last—especially when he has been the front-runner since announcing his candidacy in July 2015.) [88275, 88286]

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz has gone from first place in Iowa to second place in New Hampshire to third place in South Carolina—where he does not win even one county. While he may stay in the

94 race as long as he has campaign funds, he cannot count on evangelical voters to give him victories in most of the remaining states. Cruz won with their vote in Iowa, but few other states have as great a percentage of evangelicals. Further—perhaps partly because of the endorsement of Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell, Jr.—Trump won the evangelical vote in South Carolina, not Cruz. The reality is that people are not voting for a pastor, they are voting for a president.

Marco Rubio’s campaign is running short of cash, partly because of his poor performance at the final New Hampshire debate. With Bush out of the race, some of the establishment donors may start contributing to the Rubio campaign. Rubio would certainly like to be endorsed by Bush— and he obviously would like the money left in Bush’s PACs to come to him. In reality, Rubio’s loss in South Carolina is a great failure and a good sign for Trump. Despite having been endorsed by Governor Nikki Haley, Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Rubio still managed to capture only 22 percent of the vote. Rubio and Bush together won only 30 percent of the vote, in a state that is supposed to be “Bush country.” In the 2008 campaign, John McCain won the South Carolina primary by only 4 percent, and with about 143,000 votes. Trump won the state by 10 points and had more than 239,000 votes cast on his behalf. Trump may be unstoppable. Further, Republicans are voting in the primaries in huge numbers, while the Democrats are not. That is an indication that many Democrats will stay home on November 8. [88256, 88257, 88270, 88317]

John Kasich likely wants to remain in the race until the Ohio primary because, as that state’s governor, he expects to do well there. But the Ohio primary is on March 15, and quite a few states have primaries on March 1. Kasich may limp into that election. Some suggest that Kasich would make a good vice presidential candidate because he could arguably help the presidential nominee win Ohio. But 2016 is shaping up as a very strange year in politics, and some might argue that all bets are off. For example, if Trump becomes the nominee he may have a shot at winning New York on November 8—something that most certainly cannot be said of any of the other Republican candidates. Trump may be able to win Ohio without Kasich, and may choose a woman or a black running mate to better compete against the Democrats.

At NYPost.com John Podhoretz writes, “Donald Trump’s victory in South Carolina proves that in 2016, the GOP has split into two. There is the Trump party. And there is the not-Trump party. …With apologies to Shakespeare, Trump is the Colossus of 2016, bestriding the narrow election while other candidates walk under his huge legs and peep about, seeking a little media attention. The not-Trump party doesn’t want him but to its members and to everyone else he is beginning to seem inescapable. So what does the not-Trump party do now? Everybody knows what needs to happen. The GOP field needs to consolidate so that the not-Trump party can speak with one voice, back one candidate, and knock him over. But that’s not going to happen. …[Ben] Carson and [John] Kasich together received about 15 percent of the vote. If they eat up 15 percent of the vote in the so-called SEC primary day on March 1—that’s 12 states—they will make it all but impossible for the only two alternatives to Trump [Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio] to catch up to his 35 percent. …The not-Trump party is big and weak. The Trump party is small but strong. And as those three cheerleading pre-teens at a Trump rally in January sang to a cheering throng, ‘Deal from strength or get crushed every time.’” [88287]

On February 21 Donald Trump appears on ABC’s This Week , and expresses doubts about Marco Rubio’s eligibility to serve as president. “I think the lawyers have to determine it. …Somebody said he’s not, and I retweeted it. I have 14 million people between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, and I retweet things and we start dialogue and it’s very interesting.” [88288, 88289, 88318, 88319, 88320]

Breitbart.com posts an Aaron Klein interview of Paula Jones, one of Bill Clinton’s sexual harassment victims. Jones calls Hillary Clinton a “two-faced liar,” and says, “She don’t care nothing about women [sic], because if she did she would believe what I had to say. She would believe what the other women had to say. …It’s really a sad, sad day if Hillary becomes president, because she has allowed her husband to get by with this type of stuff. Why does he have a right to be back in the White House, the people’s house? Why is he allowed to be back there with the track record that he has and his wife and the lying that she does and how she tried to discredit all of these women that her husband abused and sexually harassed? …[S]he needs to do a public apology or something or other (for) all the women who have come out and said publicly what her husband did to them. Yes, she does. I believe she does. …It’s like they [the Clintons] are indestructible. There are so many people, I think, in the media, and so many people out there protecting them for whatever reason. I don’t know if they are scared [sic; afraid] of them, or what.” [88295]

Obama, apparently having finished reviewing his binder full of possible Supreme Court nominees, plays golf at Andrews Air Force Base. (His outing is cut short because of rain.) [88309]

Sharon Rondeau reports at ThePosteEmail.com, “On Tuesday, February 23, the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) will be adjudicating three ballot challenges filed by as many New York residents against the presidential candidacies of Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who suspended his campaign in November. …The NYSBOE incorrectly states that the citizenship requirement for the president of the United States is to be ‘born a citizen’ rather than ‘natural born Citizen.’” [88293, 88296]

C. Edmund Wright observes at Breitbart.com that “conventional wisdom is almost never right in politics. The conventional wisdom had Jeb [Bush] winning the nomination much like [Mitt] Romney did four years ago. He had the money, the experience, the resume and the name. Oh, and it was his turn. …[Bush] never really even got started. He raised over a hundred mill, but never got out of the gate. His campaign is likely the poorest return on the donor dollar in all of political history. To me, this was an obvious fait accompli: the Republican electorate was not in the mood for another squishy establishment candidate this go round—and moreover— conservatives do not believe in or support political dynasties or elected royalty. With a country of 300 million, we don’t need three Presidents from the same family. Period. Nobody outside the establishment wanted anything to do with another Bush. This was so obvious everywhere but Washington. And this would have been the case even if the first two had not been such a disaster in many ways. This is why it was never going to happen for Jeb.” [88258]

“And then along came Donald Trump—and his impact on the primary campaign was and is still massive. He may be unstoppable now in fact. Trump has changed many things—maybe

96 everything—and he demonstrated that perhaps many Americans hate the establishment more than they love their previously held principles. …Consider: People throughout history have generally loathed turn coats [sic; turncoats] and spies more than they’ve hated enemy soldiers— and we’re seeing that today with the Republican electorate. They so hate the Washington party insiders that most of the ire on talk radio and on the internet is directed at these turncoat Republicans. These same voters gave the Republicans mandates in 2010 and 2014—and that mandate was to stop Obama. It was loud and clear, and the entire Democrat party nationally is almost hollowed out as a result. And yet, with Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell leading the retreat—the Republicans caved time and again to Obama. [Republican National Committee] Reince Preibus recently indicated that the party needed to show that it could ‘make Washington work’ and govern. The GOP still lives in fear of two things above all else: A: being called racists and B: a government shutdown.” [88258] “The base is sick and tired of it. That’s why they have pushed non establishment candidates to the top of the heap. This was bound to happen. It was always going to happen. Trump has magnified all of this, but Jeb was never going to be the nominee. No one thought Jeb 2016 was a good idea—at least no one outside of Washington and the mind numbingly tone deaf and isolated from reality establishment.” [88258]

Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) endorses Marco Rubio for president, while the Rubio campaign denies rumors that Mitt Romney will endorse him—possibly because it believes Rubio would be hurt more than helped by support from Romney, who lost the 2012 race. (It may also be that Rubio wants the endorsement later in the year, when he hopes to be closer to Trump. A Romney endorsement is useless ahead of the Nevada caucuses, which Trump is expected to win handily. It is more likely that Romney will endorse no one if he hopes he can be the nominee coming out of a brokered convention. The Heller endorsement means little; Rubio will not win Nevada.) [88271, 88305, 88311, 88315]

Donald Trump addresses a massive rally in Atlanta, Georgia. [88276]

According to an AP-GfK poll, 86 percent of Republican voters believe Donald Trump can defeat the Democrat candidate in the November 8 general election. [88294, 88328]

WSJ.com reports, “Days before North Korea’s latest nuclear-bomb test, the Obama administration secretly agreed to talks to try to formally end the Korean War, dropping a longstanding condition that Pyongyang first take steps to curtail its nuclear arsenal. Instead the U.S. called for North Korea’s atomic-weapons program to be simply part of the talks. Pyongyang declined the counter-proposal, according to U.S. officials familiar with the events. Its nuclear test on Jan. 6 ended the diplomatic gambit. The episode, in an exchange at the United Nations, was one of several unsuccessful attempts that American officials say they made to discuss denuclearization with North Korea during …Obama’s second term while also negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.” (If any Obama deal with North Korea would be as bad as his deal with Iran, the world will be better off if no agreement is reached.) [88292]

In Bautzen, Germany, a planned refugee center burns down, prompting onlookers many of them intoxicated, to celebrate. According to BizPacReview.com, “Attacks on refugee centers have become a daily occurrence in Germany. A total of 924 acts of violence against the shelters were

97 recorded in 2015, compared to 199 in 2014. A shift in mentality can be seen in the way people now openly support these acts.” [88306, 88307, 88308, 88355, 88665, 88666]

On February 22 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says Donald Trump has at least a 50 percent chance of winning the Republican nomination. McCarthy is quick to say that he would be able to work well with Trump, but is more cautious with his response when asked about Cruz. [88323]

HotAir.com comments, “I’d describe Trump’s chances not so much as better than 50 percent than as better than 80 percent. Right now there’s no reason to think Cruz won’t be effectively washed up at the end of Super Tuesday. …Cruz will find the courage to go on if he wins Texas, but if that’s his only win next week then his ‘dominate the south’ strategy will have been a major failure. He’ll be the de facto third-place guy in a three-man field with the race headed towards more moderate states, which means he’ll have no realistic path. I wouldn’t even call him a sure thing in Texas. …[Marco Rubio is] your best bet in a two-man race [with Trump]. Increasingly, though, I’m not convinced that even Rubio will win head-to-head. Partly that’s a function of simple math: Trump will have piled up a lot of delegates by the time Rubio gets his chance on March 15th, so Rubio will not only be playing catch-up, he’ll have to reverse some serious Trump momentum. But partly it’s a function of my skepticism that Rubio’s going to consolidate as much of the party as he thinks. Many conservatives seem to believe that the two-thirds of the GOP electorate that’s been voting for other candidates so far are all (or mostly) firm anti-Trump voters who’ll simply gravitate to whatever alternative remains after the field winnows. I think that’s silly. Even among Cruz’s conservative voters, there are some who’d prefer the populist border hawk Trump to the establishment Rubio.” [88325]

“…What happens if Rubio loses his home state of Florida on March 15th? The last three polls taken there, all of them in January before voting anywhere started, had Trump by 12, 32, and 19 points. In all three polls, Trump would still finish ahead of Rubio even if you assigned every one of Jeb Bush’s voters to Rubio. …I don’t think it’s nuts to imagine [Trump] beating Rubio there, especially if Cruz is still hanging around—which is likely—and if he does, the race really is 99 percent over.” [88325]

In a radio interview, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich relates that he has a friend who was called in to assist with the planning of the Trump rally in Atlanta and try to keep costs down. She did so, but then told Gingrich she was amazed by Trump’s staff—which was able to quickly go over the costs and cut another 40 percent.

At the White House, Obama delivers remarks to the National Governors Association. He says, “Uh, like me, some of you might be in the final year of your last term, working as hard as you can, uh, to get as much done as possible for, uh, the folks that you represent, fixing roads, educating our children, uh, helping people retrain, appointing judges—[he smiles] the usual stuff.” Obama then grins widely as people laugh. (Obama apparently believes it is acceptable to laugh at the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Those who may have thought Obama is a uniquely despicable person now realize he has company in more than a few of the nation’s governors.) [88334, 88387]

Various web sites post a C-SPAN video of then-Senator Joe Biden saying, on the floor of the Senate in 1992, that then-President George H. W. Bush should not nominate a Supreme Court Justice in his final year in office: “It is my view that if a Supreme Court Justice resigns tomorrow, or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not—and not—name a nominee until after the November election is completed. …The Senate, too, Mr. President, must consider how it would respond to a Supreme Court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. It is my view that if the President goes the way of Presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over…” [88342, 88347, 88352, 88354, 88417]

“It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over… Others may fret that this approach would leave the Court with only eight members for some time, but as I see it, Mr. President, the cost of such a result, the need to reargue three or four cases that will divide the Justices four to four are quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the President, the Senate, and the Nation would have to pay for what would assuredly be a bitter fight, no matter how good a person is nominated by the President, if that nomination were to take place in the next several weeks. In the end, this may be the only course of action that historical practice and practical realism can sustain.” [88342, 88347, 88352, 88354]

The Washington Post writes, “Biden’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” Biden later lies, saying the 1992 video is “not an accurate description of my views on the subject.” HotAir.com notes, “If you’re keeping score, this means that the current president, current vice president, current Senate minority leader [Harry Reid], and incoming Senate minority leader [Charles Schumer] have all gone on record in the past in favor of obstructing a Supreme Court nominee.” [88342, 88347, 88352, 88354]

Of Biden’s 1992 comment, Obama later says, “First of all, we know Senators say stuff all the time. Second of all [sic; second], these were comments that were made where there was no actual nomination at stake. So it has no application to the actual situation that we have right now.” [88435]

In 2005 (which was not an election year), Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “The duties of the United States Senate are set forth in the Constitution of the United States. Nowhere in that document does it say the Senate has a duty to give presidential nominees a vote.” Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) now says, “It doesn’t matter what anybody said I the past.” [88342, 88343]

District of Columbia federal district court Judge Richard J. Leon rebukes Obama’s Department of Labor for siding with plaintiffs and against the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in a case involving voting rights. Hans Von Spakovsky explains at NationalReviews.com, “The hearing was over the temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction (PI) being sought by the League of Women Voters and a host of other leftist groups to stop the recent decision of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to allow Kansas, Georgia, Alabama,

99 and Arizona to enforce their proof-of-citizenship voter-registration requirement.” (The Department of Justice is not eager to have the rules enforced, because it wants illegal immigrants to be able to vote.) [88369, 88370]

Reuters reports, “Chinese banks including a branch of China's biggest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have frozen accounts belonging to North Koreans, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday. Citing phone conversations with an unnamed employee of ICBC's office in the northeastern Chinese border city of Dandong, the Dong-A Ilbo reported that since late December it had suspended all deposits and transfers of foreign currencies in and out of accounts with North Korean names. ‘(The bank) had never told me why it was taking such measures, but it seems that they are related with the strained relations between North Korea and China,’ the ICBC employee told the Dong-A Ilbo.” [88313, 88314]

At NoisyRoom.net Terresa Monroe-Hamilton comments on Twitter’s banning of conservative Robert Stacy McCain because he’s a conservative who upsets the “Twitter police.” She writes, “This weekend, I was shocked and saddened to learn that Stacy McCain of The Other McCain has been permanently banned by Twitter. Yes, my friends… another conservative dissident has been banished to the Twitter gulag. #FreeStacy is now trending, but Twitter won’t even display results for it. Their new Trust & Safety Council is the Twitter Ministry of Truth at work. …He had no warning, nothing. McCain just assumed it had to do with one of the leading ‘social justice warriors’… He switched to his backup Twitter account, @SexTroubleBook, and then it was banned as well yesterday. Someone really has it in for him. Not cool.” [88358]

“…Twitter is free to do as they please. It is a private company. But I would remind those on the left and the haters out there, that censorship cuts both ways and is a fickle mistress. One day they will find themselves on the receiving end of such tender attentions and their rants and indignation will go unheralded and fall on deaf ears. First they came for The Other McCain… then they came for the rest of us. …The Internet and social media broke barriers for everyone out there. It’s been fun and free while it lasted. Now we are seeing our freedoms being systematically stripped from us there. It was supposed to be a place where knowledge, ideas, thoughts and opinions could flow freely. That’s until the Marxists got their mitts on it. They are now deciding what news is fit to print and who will profit from it.” [88358]

According to a recent Milo Yiannopoulos report at Breitbart.com, “Rumours that Twitter has begun ‘shadowbanning’ politically inconvenient users have been confirmed by a source inside the company, who spoke exclusively to Breitbart Tech. His claim was corroborated by a senior editor at a major publisher. According to the source, Twitter maintains a ‘whitelist’ of favoured Twitter accounts and a ‘blacklist’ of unfavoured accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritised in search results, even if they’re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users’ timelines. Our source was backed up by a senior editor at a major digital publisher, who told Breitbart that Twitter told him it deliberately whitelists and blacklists users. …Shadowbanning, sometimes known as ‘Stealth Banning’ or ‘Hell Banning,’ is commonly used by online community managers to block content posted by spammers. Instead of banning a user directly (which would alert the spammer to their status, prompting them to create a new account), their content is merely hidden from public view. For site owners, the ideal shadowban is when a user

100 never realizes he’s been shadowbanned. However, Twitter isn’t merely targeting spammers. For weeks, users have been reporting that tweets from populist conservatives, members of the alternative right, cultural libertarians, and other anti-PC dissidents have disappeared from their timelines.” [88359]

After several weeks of charges of “dirty tricks,” Ted Cruz fires his campaign’s communications director and national spokesman, Rick Tyler. (One unnamed Cruz operative comments, “The Cruz campaign has to focus on getting basic campaign techniques right. I don’t think Cruz can win the nomination at this point. I think his campaign is done.”) [88323, 88324, 88333, 88350, 88389]

Judicial Watch posts a 32-page “Order of Proof” dated April 22, 1998 which provides “a rough outline” of information and charges “for a proposed trial of an indictment of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Wen [Webster] Hubbell” in the Whitewater scandal. (There is clearly enough information and evidence to substantiate an indictment, but being married to a sitting president protected her.) [88335]

Attorneys for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) ask a judge to dismiss a case challenging his eligibility to run for president. Attorney Layne Kruse tells the court, “Founding-era sources, congressional statements, historical precedent, case law and the overwhelming weight of scholarly authority all command the same conclusion: a ‘natural born citizen’ is a person who was a U.S. citizen at birth, without the need for later naturalization. And there is no dispute over whether Senator Cruz meets that definition.” Kruse, following the same path used by Obama attorney in 2008, argues that the challenge is premature and should not be brought until after the election—after which it will, of course, be too late to expect Congress or a court to rule against Cruz. [88336]

DCWhispers.com writes, “March 1st, 2016 is the ‘Super Tuesday’ primary election date that has over five hundred primary delegates up for grabs. It is also the date some are suggesting is when Donald Trump puts the final nail in the coffin of the Republican Establishment on his way to securing nomination victory at the RNC Convention in July.” (Trump leads in the polls in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and North Dakota. No poll data is available for Colorado or Wyoming.) “Beyond the almost overwhelming momentum that is now the Trump for President campaign, is the size and scope of Donald Trump’s appeal among voters. It has been quite some time since the country has seen a single Republican candidate rate so strongly among voters in states like Massachusetts, Virginia, Texas and North Dakota, and all points between. Donald Trump is managing to do just that and that fact is pointing to his winning the lion’s share of the March 1st, Super Tuesday GOP primary vote at which point the Trump campaign goes from a political phenomenon to an almost unstoppable force. If the GOP Establishment hopes to alter that increasingly likely outcome, it better move fast because it is running out of time.” (If Ted Cruz cannot even win his home state of Texas, his campaign will be over. Of course, some would argue that his home province is Alberta, Canada.) [88322]

In an Emerson poll in Massachusetts, Trump has 50 percent; Rubio, 16; Kasich, 13; Cruz, 10. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are tied at 46-46. In a CNN/IRC poll in Nevada, Trump leads

101 with 45 percent; Rubio has 19. In a Gravis poll in Nevada the results are Trump, 39; Cruz, 23; Rubio, 19. [88326, 88327, 88329, 88344]

In Fairfax, Virginia, John Kasich shoots himself in the foot, describing when he first ran for the Ohio state legislature decades ago: “How did I get elected? I didn’t have anybody for me, we just got an army of people and many women, who left their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door and to put yard signs up for me. All the way back, when, you know things were different. Now you call homes and everybody’s out working.” (Kasich’s statement about the past will lead to claims that he is anti-woman and believes they should be “barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.” Whether Kasich has eliminated any chance of serving in Trump’s “kitchen cabinet” remains to be seen.) [88346, 88347, 88351, 88356]

A Trump rally in Las Vegas brings out the largest political crowd in Nevada history. [88331, 88332]

On The O’Reilly Factor , Marco Rubio dodges questions about his immigration policy, repeating eight times the same remark about what “the American people” want, will support, or will respond to. [88361]

On February 23 Quinnipiac releases a poll showing Donald Trump in first place in Ohio, with 31 percent. Ohio Governor John Kasich is in second place with 26 percent, followed by Ted Cruz (21), Marco Rubio (13), and Ben Carson (5). Kasich is in second place, despite having a higher favorable rating (77 percent) in the state than Trump (57). Rubio and Cruz have favorable ratings of 62 and 60 percent.) (The Trump phenomenon may be explained with one possible sentiment: “Trump may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.”) [88348, 88357]

WashingtonExaminer.com reports, “The administration has decided to let immigrants with three sexually transmitted diseases known for causing sores or lesions on genitalia to enter the United States, an expansion of a previous decision to let in those with HIV. The Department of Health and Human Services this month opened the borders to those with the STDs, deeming the communicable diseases not a big threat to the United States. A report from the Center for Immigration Studies said that HHS does not believe that the costs to taxpayers to handle the immigrants with STDs will be significant.” (The estimated cost will be “below $100 million every year.” Of course, it would be zero if the diseased immigrants are not allowed into the United States.) [88349]

In a Rasmussen poll, Donald Trump picks up five points with Jeb Bush having dropped out of the race: “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Voters finds Trump with 36% support [up from 31], giving him a 15-point lead over Senator Marco Rubio who earns 21% of the vote [unchanged]. Senator Ted Cruz is in third place with 17% [down 3].” [88353]

According to a Gallup poll, the words and terms most often associated with Hillary Clinton are “dishonest,” “liar,” “don’t trust her,” and “poor character.” [88366]

102

Obama puts forward another proposal to close the terrorist detainee center at Guantanamo, and asks Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to facilitate the transfer of the terrorists to prisons in the United States (after releasing some). Obama says, “For many years it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security—it undermines it. This is not just my opinion, this is the opinion of experts, and those in our military. …I am very clear-eyed about hurdles to finally closing Guantanamo Bay, the politics of this are tough. The American public is worried about terrorism, in their mind the notion of having [detainees] held in the U.S. rather than in some distant place can be scary. But part of my message here is that we’re already holding a bunch of dangerous terrorists in the U.S. And there have been no incidents. We’ve managed it just fine. …Let’s go ahead and get this thing done [88364, 88369, 88371, 88373, 88397]

Obama’s proposal will go nowhere, and his oft-repeated claim that the facility is a recruiting tool for terrorist organizations is total nonsense. (The radical Islamists will not put down their weapons simply because prisoners are moved from Cuba to a prison in Colorado or Kansas.) But Obama does not care that he will be blocked by Congress. The purpose of his proposal is to give Democrats a campaign issue.

CBS News’ Mark Knoller notes that Obama delivered his remarks at the White House with a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt behind him. It was Roosevelt who signed the lease with Cuba for the Guantanamo base “113 years ago today.” [88385, 88386, 88664]

White House press secretary Josh Earnest argues on behalf of Obama’s efforts to move the terrorists from Guantanamo to U.S. prisons: “[T]the detention that we would have in place would be cleanly in line with American values, right? That we would ensure that this is consistent with the way that American citizens are treated. That certainly is more consideration than these terrorists give to their adversaries, to say the least. But we would be on quite strong moral ground to say that these individuals are being treated humanely, that they are—that the conditions in which they are detained are safe, and clean and reasonable. And we would be taking away an important propaganda tool that we know that extremist organizations like ISIL [ISIS] capitalize on.” (Earnest’s arguments are ridiculous. There is no need to treat enemy combatants like Americans; there is not even any justification. They are already treated humanely at Guantanamo. The “propaganda tool” argument is ludicrous on its face. Many leftists seem to forget World War II. Japanese and German prisoners of war were kept in prison camps and not released until the war was over. There were not given attorneys, trials, or the rights enjoyed by Americans.) [88400]

Retired General Thomas McInerney tells WND.com Obama’s claim that Guantanamo is a recruiting tool is “absolutely false. It’s like, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan.’ There is no truth to that whatsoever. …They’re beheading people because of their radical ideology of radical Islam, the Quran, the hadith and Shariah law. That’s what motivates those people, not because they’ve got people in Gitmo. …Why would we do this [close GITMO] and encourage other future radical Islamists to think, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter if I’m captured, they’re not going to do anything to me’? …I do not know why [Obama] did all the things he does. Why did he exchange Sergant [Bowe] Bergdahl for five four-star general equivalents? Why did he not respond in Benghazi and send reinforcements? Why did he flip to supporting

103 radical Islamists in 2012? I don’t have those answers, except every one of them ends up with aiding and abetting the enemy. …Why would we give [captured terrorists] the rights of every American citizen? That makes no sense. What kind of president do we have that is basically aiding and abetting the enemy? …If you're caught on the battlefield, then you should be treated appropriately. We didn’t let the German and Japanese POWs go before the end of World War II, did we?” [88375]

Meanwhile, Spanish and Moroccan police arrest four members of a jihadi cell—one of whom is a bomb and weapons expert who was released from Guantanamo in 2004. [88468, 88469]

All 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee holds firm and state it will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee presented by Obama. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) tells reporters, “We believe the American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment rather than a lame-duck president.” [88363, 88365]

Judicial Watch announces, “District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan today granted Judicial Watch’s motion for discovery into whether the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliberately thwarted the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for six years. The developments come in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about Clinton’s separate email records… Judge Sullivan initially announced his ruling from the bench during a hearing this morning and, over the objections of the State Department, authorized Judicial Watch to submit a plan for ‘narrowly-tailored discovery.’ Judge Sullivan is also considering whether to order the State Department to subpoena all the emails on the clinton.com email system.” (The non-nonsense Sullivan is black and was appointed by Bill Clinton.) [88367, 88381, 88433]

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton states, “Judge Sullivan’s ruling granting Judicial Watch’s request for discovery is a major victory for the public’s right to know the truth about Hillary Clinton’s email system. The court-ordered discovery will help determine why the State Department and Mrs. Clinton, even despite receiving numerous FOIA requests, kept the record system secret for years. Our proposed discovery, which will require court approval, will include testimony of current and former officials of the State Department. While Mrs. Clinton’s testimony may not be required initially, it may happen that her testimony is necessary for the Court to resolve the legal issues about her unprecedented email practices.” [88367, 88368, 88381, 88433]

ThePostEmail.com reports, “Seven presidential eligibility ballot challenges filed with the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) were rejected on Tuesday as being ‘beyond the Ministerial Scope of the Board’ and ‘invalid.’ Collectively, the ballot objections named Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as well as former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as ineligible to seek the presidency for lack of being ‘natural born Citizens,’ as is required by Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution. Three of the seven challenges were deemed invalid for having been received after the deadline for the filing of objections in advance of the New York state primaries on April 19.” [88374, 88487]

104

According to RedStateWatcher.com, “Glenn Beck, while giving a speech on behalf of Ted Cruz at Palo Verde High School in Summerlin, Nevada, got the cold shoulder when Donald Trump entered. ‘The room went wild,’ said one witness. Trump was met [with] thundering cheers of ‘Trump!’ while mobbed by fans wanting selfies. [88377, 88388, 88402, 88403, 88440]

Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox News’ parent company, News Corporation, attends a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at the London home of millionaire Natalie Massenet. (Foreigners are not permitted to contribute to U.S. candidates. It is assumed that many of the guests are U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad.) [88391]

The Republican caucuses are held in Nevada. Donald Trump wins with 45.9 percent of the vote, followed by Marco Rubio (23.9), Ted Cruz (21.4), Ben Carson (3.8), and John Kasich (3.6 percent.) Trump wins 45 percent of the Hispanic vote—more than what Hispanics Rubio and Cruz won together. (Of course, there are few Hispanic Republicans in Nevada, but it is significant that Trump did better with them than did Rubio—who the pundits have claimed was going to lead the GOP into the “promised land” of Hispanic voters. That is ridiculous. Hispanics and blacks will continue to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats for decades to come.) Trump also wins the evangelical vote. (Glenn Beck’s call for Christians to engage in fasting in order to secure a victory for Cruz is not successful.) [88378, 88380, 88383, 88392, 88393, 88394, 88395, 88396, 88411, 88416, 88474]

On February 24 Attorney General Loretta Lynch tells a House Appropriations Subcommittee that current law prohibits Obama from transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States. Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) states, “If [Obama] proceeds with knowingly breaking the law and asking the military to knowingly break the law he will be met with fierce bipartisan opposition here in Congress and we are taking all legal preparations necessary to meet that resistance.” [88382, 88399]

Lynch also comments on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email and server: “That matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents—FBI agents—as well as career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they’ll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate. This will be conducted as every other case, and we will review all the facts and all the evidence and come to an independent conclusion as to how to handle it.” [88384]

Reuters reports, “U.S. spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton’s home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as ‘top secret’ because their wording matched sections of some of the government’s most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said. The two reports are the first formal declarations by U.S. spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server. …Two sources said some of the top secret material was related to the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes against Islamist militants in the Middle East and South Asia.” [88434]

105

ISIS fighters in Sabratha, Libya take over government security headquarters, behead 12 officers, and use the headless bodies to block the roads leading to the complex. (Obama and Hillary Clinton still consider their actions in Libya to oust Muammar Gaddafi a success.) [88466, 88467]

Interviewed by Steve Harvey, Hillary Clinton says, “[W]e have to say to the gun lobby, ‘You know what, there is a Constitutional right for people to own guns, but there’s also a Constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that enables us to have a safe country were we are able to protect our children and others from this senseless gun violence.” (The words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” appear not in the U.S. Constitution, but in the Declaration of Independence.) [88453, 88454]

BuffaloReflex.com reports on the arrest of Safya Roe Yassin, a Muslim resident of Buffalo, New York. “[S]he was later charged with communicating threats of violence over the Internet. Federal investigators said Yassin made a post on Twitter in August with the names, cities and phone numbers of two FBI agents, with the words ‘Wanted to Kill.’ She also allegedly made threats against government officials and members of the military, recommending that many needed to be beheaded. …Yassin tweeted a list of town of residence and phone numbers of approximately 150 U.S. Air Force personnel with the following quote: ‘Rejoice, O supporters of the Caliphate State, with the dissemination of the information to be delivered to lone wolves… God said: ‘And slay them wherever you may come upon them.’” [88414, 88415]

In an Emerson College Survey in Texas, Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump by a mere one point, 29- 28. Marco Rubio has 25 percent; John Kasich 9, and Ben Carson 4. [88401, 88404]

In a Fox5 poll in Georgia, Trump leads with 34; Rubio, 23; Cruz, 20. In a Quinnipiac poll in Ohio; the numbers are: Trump, 31; John Kasich, 26; Ted Cruz, 21; Marco Rubio, 13. [88407]

In a poll commissioned by WFAA-TV, Trump and Cruz are tied at 32 percent in Texas. Rubio has 17 percent; Kasich 6, Carson 5. [88408, 88409]

In a Quinnipiac poll in Ohio, Trump leads Hillary Clinton 44-42; Rubio leads Clinton 47-42; Cruz leads Clinton 46-43; Kasich leads Clinton 54-37; [88437, 88438]

Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Chris Collins (R-NY) endorse Donald Trump. [88405, 88410, 88499]

At PJMedia.com Roger L. Simon writes, “Now that Donald Trump has wiped the floor yet again with the other Republican candidates in the Nevada caucuses, it's time for the GOP to face reality—barring force majeure , they have a presidential candidate, like it or not. …A lot of my Republican friends are depressed about this situation. They worry that Trump is not a real conservative. They cringe at his vulgarity. They are concerned he's a bully, even totalitarian. I’m not. And I am not depressed, even though I admire many of the other candidates in the race. Given the gravity of the situation, what Obama has done to this nation and the candidates being offered by the Democrats, a world class liar and a Eugene V. Debs retread, a personality as large

106 as Donald may be necessary to revive our country. In fact, I think I’ll take the ‘may’ out of that.” [88406]

“This is what I think the electorate senses and what the Republican establishment fears. Rather than being afraid that Donald will lose, many establishment folks, I suspect, are afraid he will win. It will not be business as usual and most human beings seek business as usual, especially successful ones. …Nothing ever changes. Republicans are at risk of doing the same thing with the word ‘conservative.’ If I hear another candidate claim to be the most ‘conservative,’ I think I’ll bang my head against the table. I can’t be the only one who feels that way. …And listen to what Trump is actually saying. He’s for lower taxes and a strong defense and he’s not really against free trade. He just wants a better deal. Who wouldn’t and who wouldn’t assume he’d get a better one than the Obama crowd? Or the Bush crowd for that matter, on just about anything.” [88406]

“…People like [Erick] Erickson and pundits far more sophisticated suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Because he’s not part of ‘Their Crowd’ they can’t really grasp what he’s saying. Time to end that. Don’t fight Donald. Be smart, co-opt him. Or, as we used to say, be there or be square. Next November depends on it.” [88406]

New York Times columnist Russ Douthat tweets, “Good news guys I’ve figured out how the Trump campaign ends:” He includes a link to a YouTube video clip about an assassination in the 1983 movie The Dead Zone . Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino calls Douthat’s comments “irresponsible, grotesque, despicable and ignorant.” Bongino tells WND.com, “The people are angry at Washington, D.C., and more importantly, the insider class, which includes people like this joker [Douthat]. People are angry at them because they feel like morally and ethically that these people live by a different code, and this guy’s code is clearly, ‘I’m gonna say or do whatever I want to anyone who doesn’t live by this connected insider set of rules,’ even if it means tweeting a tweet that suggests someone should kill the guy! I mean, how out of touch, ethically challenged and disgusting can this group of people get?” (The top shareholder of The New York Times is Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú. He also owns América Móvil, which makes a fortune selling “Obamaphones” to the U.S. government.) [88441, 88442, 88528, 88561, 88585, 88586]

At Townhall.com Jeff Crouere later writes, “If Douthat had made such a threat against …Obama, he would have been arrested and faced charges. If Douthat had made the threat against Hillary Clinton, he would have been immediately fired and been the subject of nationwide ridicule. However, since the victim of this reprehensible attack was Donald Trump, the New York Times did absolutely nothing. In fact, it seems that Douthat was not even reprimanded by the ‘newspaper of record.’ Of course, Americans have the First Amendment and we thankfully have a free press and cherished rights such as free speech. However, news organizations should also have standards and advocating violence against the leading Republican Party presidential candidate should be unacceptable behavior that is never tolerated.” [88534]

At Trump-obsessed NationalReview.com, ‘Charles C. W. Cooke writes, “Now is the time to throw everything at Trump, and to stop this disaster in its tracks. …Incidentally, when I say ‘everything,’ I really do mean everything . …Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz must find their resolve

107 and all-but-machine-gun the man to the floor. …[C]onservatives who are not running for president must ensure that every spare dollar is spent attacking Trump. Melt down the fences if you have to; we need long-range bombers here. If Donald Trump can flood the airwaves with his nonsense, his opponents can counter it incessantly. And while they are at it, they can tie him up in court, just as he’s trying to do to [Ted] Cruz. There are a good number of ‘just asking’ questions ready to be put to them, among them ‘Trump’s mother was Scottish, can he really be president?’” (Cooke is so determined to stop Trump he does not bother to check facts before writing. Had he done so, he would have learned that Trump’s mother became a naturalized U.S. citizen before he was born. He was therefore born in the United States to two U.S.-citizen parents—which neither Cruz nor Marco Rubio can claim.) [88529]

The CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh reports that David Farrell, “a Republican attorney from suburban Philadelphia has challenged [Senator Ted] Cruz’s right to run [for president] because he is not a natural born citizen. …In a petition filed with the state’s Commonwealth Court, Farrell, of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, says Sen. Cruz’s Canadian birth certificate proves he was born in Canada, and the fact that his mother is an American citizen does not make him natural born. …The Commonwealth Court hearing on whether to disqualify Sen. Cruz’s nominating petitions is now set for March 10. Sources tell KDKA’s Jon Delano that Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini of Pittsburgh will be the judge. Whatever the outcome, an appeal to the state Supreme Court seems likely in the case.” [88412, 88413]

Mitt Romney pounds on Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, demanding that Trump release his tax returns: “This will give us a real sense of whether these people are on the up and up and whether they’ve been telling us things about themselves that are true or not. Frankly, I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes… I think there’s something there. Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing, and the reason that I think there’s a bombshell in there is because every time he’s asked about his taxes he dodges and delays and says, well, we’re working on it.” Trump respond via Twitter: “Mitt Romney, who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy.” [88418, 88419, 88436, 88439, 88451]

Romney (who was supported by Trump in 2012) is being the surrogate for the Republican establishment on the tax issue. Romney has no way of knowing what is in Trump’s tax returns because it is illegal for the IRS to share that information. “I think there’s something there” is simply a scare tactic meant to prevent Republicans from endorsing Trump. (One can say, “He may be hiding something” about anyone, with absolutely nothing to back up the statement.) In addition, Romney’s claims do not even make sense. To suggest that tax returns will prove Trump is “not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is” is preposterous, because tax returns only report taxable income; they do not report assets or net worth. (One cannot, for example, know the equity of someone’s house simply by examining his tax return. No such information is even in the filing.)

The reality is that Trump will be harmed little if he does not release a copy of his income tax returns. If he releases them and they show he pays a low effective tax rate because of legal

108 deductions, he will say, “I followed the law and kept my taxes to a minimum, just as every other American tries to do. I would be stupid to overpay my taxes.” Trump’s tax returns are currently being audited by the IRS, which is another reason not to release them. If he releases his 2014 return and the IRS requires change, there will only be demands that Trump release a copy of the post-audit return. It is a game Trump should not bother playing. (This Timeline believes Trump will not and should not release his tax returns.) [88510, 88521]

Marco Rubio then announces he will release his tax returns over the weekend. (Translation: Romney’s appearance on Fox News was coordinated with the Rubio campaign.) [88420]

Rubio tells Fox News’ Megyn Kelly it was wrong for a gun range in Oklahoma to deny access to a Muslim. Rubio says, “It’s immoral. We should not be doing that to people. The bottom line is there are millions of patriotic Muslim Americans.” (There are only about 1.8 million adult Muslims in the United States. There could hardly, therefore, be “millions” of “patriotic Muslim Americans.”) “Our issue is not with patriotic Muslim Americans. It’s not even with Islam. It is with radical jihadis. It with radical Islam, which is a politicization and a radical ideology that threatens Islam.” According to Breitbart.com, “A lawsuit against the gun range was filed by 29- year-old Raja’ee Fatihah, a board member of the Oklahoma chapter of the Muslim Council on American-Islamic Relations. The gun range owner argues that Fatihah was denied service because he was ‘belligerent’ and that the ‘Muslim free’ signage in his business was protected by free speech.” (Pamela Geller comments, “This is one very excellent reason (among many) why Marco Rubio (aka Jeb 2.0) should not be our nominee. The fact is that the Islamic doctrine of jihad (holy war) is very much the problem.”) [88464, 88465]

BrandIndex.com reports, “Since the first GOP presidential debate last August, Fox News Channel [FNC] seems to have lost its perception mojo with its core right-leaning audience. By mid February, FNC’s perception by Republican adults 18 and over had reached its lowest point in more than three years, and has declined by approximately 50% since January of this year. …[S]ince last May, Fox News Channel’s perception levels with adults 18+ have uncharacteristically been drawing significantly more negative feedback than positive. At this point, both FNC and CNN are scoring at similar perception levels and they are both negative.” [88515]

On February 25 Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) reverses his position and decides not to put a hold on legislation to give funds to Flint, Michigan to address its problem with a lead-tainted water supply. According to Politico.com, “Cruz had placed a ‘soft hold’ on the aid package to give him more time to study the details of the proposal. Without naming Cruz, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), a lead negotiator on the Flint aid package, acknowledged a hold was preventing it from coming to the floor, but Inhofe said he was hopeful the impasse could be resolved.” (For Cruz to even consider blocking the legislation makes no sense, even though it likely contains some wasteful add-ons—with the Michigan primary coming up on March 8.) [88421, 88422]

Secretary of State John Kerry tells the House Foreign Affairs Committee he did not know Hillary Clinton used a private server and a non-governmental email account—even though he sent emails to her at that address. (At least one of his emails to her was classified as “secret.”) Meanwhile, Vice.com reports that former Attorney General Eric Holder used the name “Lew

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Alcindor” for emails. (Lew Alcindor is the birth name of former NBA player Kareem Abdul- Jabbar.) [88424, 88430]

Asked by Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) if the killing of Christians in the Middle East should be considered genocide, Kerry replies, “…We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedents for whatever judgment is made. I can tell you we are doing that. I have had some initial recommendations made to me. I have asked for some further evaluation. And I will make a decision on this. And I will make a decision on it as soon as I have that additional evaluation and we will proceed forward from there.” [88448]

At the State Department, Obama downplays the significance of ISIS, saying, “Bottom line, there are fewer ISIL [ISIS] fighters on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq and for those that [sic; who] are there, it’s harder for them to recruit and replenish their ranks. As finances shrink, ISIL is also imposing more taxes and fines on those under its brutal rule. That in turn stokes even more resentment among local populations. More people are realizing that ISIL is not a caliphate, it’s a crime ring.” [88425]

Canadian author Mark Steyn contrasts the United States with Australia, where “everyone electorally viable is a hard-ass [on illegal immigration]. …In America, by contrast, there is a cozy bipartisan consensus between the Democrat Party and the Donor [Republican] Party that untrammeled mass unskilled immigration now and forever is a good thing. The Dems get voters, the Donors get cheap labor. The Dems have the better deal, but over on the GOP side the Stupid Party is too stupid to realize that suicide in slow motion leads to the same place as one swift sure slice from Isis. So it was obvious that the moment someone [Donald Trump] proposed to rupture this corrupt and squalid arrangement that there would be takers for it—particularly among America’s downwardly mobile lower middle class who, as a price for supporting the Donor Party, are supposed to put up with stagnant wages and diminished economic opportunity as a permanent feature of life.” [88580]

“…The number [of Republican voters] who feel betrayed by the Donor Party for at least the entirety of the present century is huge. And, unlike all the codswallop about ‘comprehensive immigration reform,’ this time [a]round there’s a candidate speaking their lingo. …[T]he ‘experts’ have assured us there’s no need to worry about Trump because he has a low ceiling. But the only opposition to him is two blokes whose ceilings through New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada have been crawl spaces in the low twenties. Millions and millions of Americans have heard promises of ‘a new American century’ from shallow consultant-managed pretty-boys and unctuous slickers a gazillion times before, and they write it off as code for more of the same remorseless descent ever deeper into the abyss. Then someone came along with a message that aligned with the reality of their lives: ‘The American Dream is dead.’ It’s not ‘Morning in America’ because, thanks to the betrayal of the Donor Party, that’ll no longer play.” [88580]

Race hustler Al Sharpton says, “If Donald Trump is the nominee, I’m open to support anyone [else], while I’m also reserving my ticket to get out of here if he wins, only because he’d probably have me deported anyway.” (Sharpton likely does not realize he has given millions of

110 people a reason to vote for Trump; but he may realize he could end up being prosecuted for income tax evasion if Trump is elected.) [88426, 88511]

In an Alabama poll, Donald Trump leads with 36 percent, followed by Marco Rubio (19) and Ted Cruz (12). (Cruz’s “southern strategy” appears not to be working.) [88452]

TheBlaze.com writes, “A political science professor at Long Island’s Stoney Brook University believes the statistical odds of businessman Donald Trump becoming the next president are between 97 and 99 percent. That professor, Helmut Norpoth, says his statistical forecast model shows the Manhattan mogul’s chances of beating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton are at 97 percent, while his chances of defeating Bernie Sanders are at 99 percent. Overall, the model predicts that there is a 61 percent chance that a Republican will win the White House in November. Norpoth, who announced his model’s results earlier this week, says his model is very accurate—and has been for 104 years. The statistical model, which uses a candidate’s performance in their party’s primary in addition to electoral cycle patterns, has correctly predicted the general election outcome for every presidential election dating back to 1912. There is only one exception to the model’s accuracy: The 1960 presidential election. This gives the model an accuracy rating of 96.1 percent.” (John F. Kennedy won the 1960 election with vote fraud in Chicago. Absent that fraud, Richard Nixon would have won and Norpoth’s model would be 100 percent accurate.) [88475, 88484, 88944]

Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal , “…I keep thinking of how Donald Trump got to be the very likely Republican nominee. There are many answers and reasons, but my thoughts keep revolving around the idea of protection. It is a theme that has been something of a preoccupation in this space over the years, but I think I am seeing it now grow into an overall political dynamic throughout the West. There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully. The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world. More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created . Again, they make public policy and have for some time.” [88496, 88497]

“…They are figures in government, politics and media. They live in nice neighborhoods, safe ones. Their families function, their kids go to good schools, they’ve got some money. All of these things tend to isolate them, or provide buffers. Some of them—in Washington it is important officials in the executive branch or on the Hill; in Brussels, significant figures in the European Union—literally have their own security details. Because they are protected they feel they can do pretty much anything, impose any reality. They’re insulated from many of the effects of their own decisions. One issue obviously roiling the U.S. and western Europe is immigration. It is THE issue of the moment, a real and concrete one but also a symbolic one: It stands for all the distance between governments and their citizens. It is of course the issue that made Donald Trump.” [88496, 88497]

“…What marks this political moment, in Europe and the U.S., is the rise of the unprotected. It is the rise of people who don’t have all that much against those who’ve been given many blessings and seem to believe they have them not because they’re fortunate but because they’re better.

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…This is a terrible feature of our age—that we are governed by protected people who don’t seem to care that much about their unprotected fellow citizens. And a country really can’t continue this way. In wise governments the top is attentive to the realities of the lives of normal people, and careful about their anxieties. That’s more or less how America used to be. There didn’t seem to be so much distance between the top and the bottom. Now is seems the attitude of the top half is: You’re on your own. Get with the program, little racist. Social philosophers are always saying the underclass must re-moralize. Maybe it is the overclass that must re-moralize. I don’t know if the protected see how serious this moment is, or their role in it.” [88496, 88497]

While USA Today reports, “This morning …Obama brought together more than 40 organizations and federal agencies to expedite the Precision Medicine Initiative, ‘an effort to accelerate a new era of medicine, focused on delivering more tailored health care,” CounterMoonbat notes on Twitter that WashingtonExaminer.com is reporting, Paperwork requirements for hospitals, doctors and patients [are] up 70 percent under ObamaCare.” [88427]

Former president of Mexico Vincente Fox tells Univision’s illegal immigrant amnesty advocate Jorge Ramos, “I’m not gonna [sic] pay for that fucking wall. He [Donald Trump] should pay for it. Trump responds via Twitter, “FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a[n] uproar!” [88428, 88429, 88479]

Secretary of State John Kerry, testifying before the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is asked by Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) about former Gitmo detainee Ibrahim al Qosi—who was released by the Obama administration and is now involved in terrorist recruitment activities. Kerry responds, “Well, Senator, he’s not supposed to be doing that and there are consequences for that and there will be.” (Kerry does not elaborate on what those consequences might be or who would impose them.) Kerry adds, “But apart from that, the fact is that we’ve got people who’ve been held without charges for 13 years, 14 years in some cases. That’s not American, that’s not how we operate.” (The statement is ludicrous. Captured enemy combatants are held until the war is over. If the war lasts 20 years, they are held for 20 years. While World War II was raging no Americans suggested that German or Japanese prisoners of war be released. Kerry apparently believes it is “un-American” not to release prisoners of war. Why, then, should U.S. troops bother capturing them in the first place?) [88443, 88444, 88506, 88507, 88508]

Kerry also brags that he was responsible for the release of the 10 sailors captured by Iran: “…[I]f we hadn’t done this [nuclear] agreement and I didn’t have a relationship with the foreign minister, then they probably would have been hostages and they might still be there. It was a virtue—” Kerry is interrupted by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who says, “I would imagine that if …Obama wasn’t president, and anybody else was president, they [the Iranians] would never have done this to begin with. I’m really tired of this, being walked all over.” [88449]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, joins the Trump campaign. Sanders states, “What makes Mr. Trump my choice for president is he will break the grip of the donor class on our government and make it accountable to working families again.” (Mike Huckabee has not yet endorsed a candidate, but few will be surprised if he

112 endorses Trump. That improves the odds of Trump winning the Arkansas primary—a state with evangelicals that Ted Cruz hopes to win.) [88478, 88499]

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tells an audience, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you. …A good Republican would defend Ted Cruz after tonight. That ain’t happening. …I was asked the hardest question in my political life: ‘Do you agree with Donald Trump that Ted Cruz is the biggest liar in politics?’ Too close to call. …[But] I will say that our Canadian [Cruz] is better than your Kenyan [Obama].” Graham also calls Hillary Clinton “the most dishonest person in America.” [88458, 88502, 88503]

The Republican presidential candidates debate on CNN, with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz ganging up on Donald Trump. Asked about former Mexican president Vincente Fox’s remark, Trump replies, “The wall just got 10 feet taller, believe me. It just got 10 feet taller.” [88423, 88445, 88446, 88455, 88463, 88472, 88473, 88476, 88483, 88489, 88517, 88576]

Trump tells Cruz, “You get along with nobody. You don’t have one Republican senator backing you. You should be ashamed of yourself.” [88462]

Rubio criticizes Trump for having hired illegal immigrants for his construction projects; Trump fires back, “No, no, I’m the only one on the stage that’s [sic; who has] hired people. You haven’t hired anybody.” [88486]

Cruz says, “When I was leading the fight against amnesty, Donald Trump was firing Denis Rodman on TV.” (Rodman later tweets, “Yes Ted Cruz, Donald Trump did fire me on Celebrity Apprentice. But he’s about to fire your ass too! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.”) [88459, 88460, 88512]

During a commercial break, Cruz and Rubio shake hands behind Trump’s back—apparently congratulating each other for teaming up against the frontrunner. [88493, 88494]

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews comments on “that squealer out in the [debate] audience that [sic; who] clearly… the Rubio team has hired, or put her out there, a couple of them, maybe three, four of them, squealing at the top of their lungs—every single time that Rubio said anything. It was the most unnatural, phony thing in the world. I hope people, when they watch this, know this is all choreographed, it’s all part of a PR [public relations] operation.” [88450, 88461]

A Frank Luntz focus group on The Kelly File declares Marco Rubio the winner of the night’s debate—but that doesn’t mean he won many votes. One group member says, “I think the reason we’re talking about Trump is because he’s somebody who’s accomplished something, versus just an orator. Maybe Rubio was the best orator tonight… but can he accomplish things?” Another says, “Rubio’s a great orator. It was like student council tonight. But didn’t we just elect an orator [Obama] twice in a row. How do you feel about that?” [88482]

On February 26 The Telegraph reports, “More than 130,000 asylum seekers may have disappeared in Germany, according to newly released government figures, raising concerns over

113 terrorism and organised crime. In a parliamentary answer, Angela Merkel’s government said it had lost track of around 13 per cent of the 1.1 million people registered as asylum seekers last year. The missing people never arrived at official government refugee accommodation which had been assigned to them.” [88530, 88531, 88588]

Marco Rubio spends the morning calling Donald Trump a “con artist.” (The term “con artist,” of course, arguably applies to Rubio, who sold his “gang of eight” immigration reform legislation as something it was not.) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie then endorses Donald Trump, completely taking the wind out of Rubio’s debate performance sails. [88447, 88456, 88457, 88488, 88490, 88491, 88495]

Chris Christie, a long-time friend of Donald Trump, is no fan of Marco Rubio. NYTimes.com writes, “Mr. Christie had attacked Mr. Rubio contemptuously in New Hampshire, calling him shallow and scripted, and humiliating him in a debate. Nevertheless, Mr. Rubio made a tentative overture to Mr. Christie after his withdrawal from the presidential race. He left the governor a voice mail message, seeking Mr. Christie’s support and assuring him that he had a bright future in public service, according to people who have heard Mr. Christie’s characterization of the message. Mr. Christie, 53, took the message as deeply disrespectful and patronizing, questioning why ‘a 44-year-old’ was telling him about his future, said people who described his reaction on the condition of anonymity. Further efforts to connect the two never yielded a direct conversation.” [88527]

Later in the day, at a Trump rally in Oklahoma, City, Christie tells the crowd, “Marco Rubio, your campaign is almost over, buddy. He’s showing a lot of desperation today, throwing punches from a lot of angles, but none of them are landing, because America has made its decision. Donald Trump represents strength. Marco Rubio represents Washington, D.C. We don’t need any more D.C. politicians.” [88514]

Reuters writes that the Chris Christie endorsement “opens up a wide network of donors, advisers and prominent elected officials whom the billionaire has not yet been able to attract to his unorthodox bid for the Republican presidential nomination. As Trump tries to lock up the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, Christie advisers and supporters told Reuters in interviews that he could bring much-needed financial and strategic backing. Christie’s backing demonstrates that Trump will be able to bring establishment politicians into the fold, that he could raise the money necessary for a general election campaign and build a staffing operation that can rival a Democratic nominee.” (The endorsement also leads to speculation that, if elected, Trump would appoint Christie to the Attorney General position. That should cause sleepless nights for Hillary Clinton and her aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, as Christie and Trump might show no reluctance to prosecuting them if the FBI recommends doing so.) [88498]

Maine Governor Paul LePage endorses Trump shortly after Christie’s announcement. (This is the same LePage who, according to The New York Times , told fellow Republican governors on February 20 they should disavow Trump. Either LePage had a dramatic change of mind or the Times is reporting fiction as news.) [88498, 88509, 88527]

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Politico.com reports, “[S]everal Capitol Hill staffers, including a congressional chief of staff, and a number of state GOP staffers, have begun peddling their resumes to Trump’s campaign, according to a source involved in those back-channel conversations. ‘Everybody wants on the bus before it leaves the station,’ he said.” (The five classic stages of grief are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The Weekly Standard , National Review , Townhall.com, and various neocon pundits are still at the anger stage. Chris Christie and a few others are at the acceptance stage.) [88499, 88500]

HotAir.com reports on rumors from the Marco Rubio camp that it is laying out a strategy for winning the nomination even if Donald Trump heads into the Republican National Convention with a commanding lead: “That’s right… it started a while ago, but word on the street is that Rubio’s people are starting to publicly whisper about the possibility of some dirty tricks at the convention. …If that did happen this summer then we may get to watch Hillary Clinton try to run the country from a jail cell, since Trump’s voters would rebel in force and mutiny in November.” [88477, 88480]

At NationalInterest.org Jacob Heilbrunn writes, “Anyone looking for further converts to the Hillary Clinton campaign might do well to look at the Marco Rubio campaign. If Clinton is the leading liberal hawk, Rubio is the foremost neocon candidate. …Whether it’s Cuba or Iran or Russia, he stakes out the most intransigent line: ‘I disagree with voices in my own party who argue we should not engage at all, who warn we should heed the words of John Quincy Adams not to go ‘abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.’’ Not surprisingly, he’s surrounded himself with neocon advisers, ranging from Max Boot to Jamie Fly to Elliott Abrams. If Donald Trump, as seems more than likely, prevails in the GOP primary, then a number of neocons may defect to the Clinton campaign. Already Robert Kagan announced in the Washington Post on Thursday that he intends to back Hillary Clinton if Donald Trump receives the GOP nomination. The fact is that the loyalty of the neocons has always been to an ideology of American exceptionalism, not to a particular party.” [88547, 88678, 88679, 88680]

“…[I]t wasn’t until the George W. Bush presidency that the neocons became the dominant foreign policy force inside the GOP. They promptly proceeded to wreck his presidency by championing the war in Iraq. Today, having wrecked it, they are now threatening to bolt the GOP and support Hillary Clinton rather than Donald Trump for the presidency. …Trump represents everything that the neocons believed that they had purged from the GOP. He represents continuity with the Buchananite [Pat Buchanan] wing, the belief that America should tend to its own knitting before launching hopeless wars abroad. When it comes to foreign policy, however, the second generation of neocons such as Kagan does not trace its lineage back to Ohio Senator Robert Taft but to the one that Republicans in the early 1950s reviled: the Truman administration. Here we come full circle. The origins of the neocons are in the Democratic Party. Should Clinton become the Democratic nominee and Trump the Republican one, a number of neocons may make common cause with Clinton. Watch Rubio’s ranks first.” [88547]

A GOP consulting firm, Data Targeting, issues a confidential memo “outlining the possibility of a true independent run for President of the United States in 2016. The purpose of this memo and this project is to: 1) Determine if this option is technically, legally and logistically viable and, 2)

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Embark on specific survey and other research to test a short list of possible candidates in battleground states.” [88721, 88722]

In a Quinnipiac poll, Donald Trump leads Marco Rubio in his home state of Florida. Trump has 44 percent to Rubio’s 28 percent. Ted Cruz has 12; John Kasich has 7; Ben Carson has 4. (Even if Cruz were to drop out of the race and his 12 percent went to Rubio, Rubio would still lose to Trump by 4 percent.) [88481]

Also in the Florida Quinnipiac poll: 21 percent of “likely Republican primary voters” would never support Trump. But 26 percent say they would never support Ted Cruz. [88481]

D. W. Ulsterman ( The Ulsterman Report ) writes on Facebook, “I was just taken to the woodshed during a conversation regarding the current election cycle as I attempted to defend the qualifications of ALL the top GOP candidates. A gentleman whose opinion I value, and who is admittedly more experienced in the dirt under the fingernails of this business than I ever hope to be, laid it out with the following statement: ‘Rubio is talking over and over now about how he is the one to save the Republican Party. Trump has since day one said how he hopes to be the one to help save America. Who do you think has the more important and worthwhile goal?’ I decided at that point I should be quiet for a bit. I know when I just got my ass kicked…” (Trump is winning not because he is running as a Republican, conservative, moderate, liberal, or Democrat. He is winning because he is running as an American. That is why he may win the White House.)

DCWhispers.com writes, “A newly whispered rumor involves Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich having preliminary discussion about Gingrich’s involvement in a Trump White House as the potential new president’s Chief of Staff. Trump is said to have made clear his intention to surround himself with a mix of business-savvy men and women as well as some who have considerable experience dealing with the monstrosity that is D.C. politics. The former Speaker of the House and 2012 presidential candidate was the last to lead a Congress that was willing to send to the president’s desk a balanced budget, and Trump appears increasingly interested in utilizing Gingrich’s considerable talent and know-how to keep his White House on task and on time in delivering the kind of change Mr. Trump’s millions of supporters are hoping for in 2017. Gingrich has recently been a vocal supporter of the Trump campaign, indicating a belief that Donald Trump might very well be the only one among all the candidates, Republican or Democrat, who has the fortitude to pull America back from the brink. He most recently warned the Republican Establishment it needs to begin to prepare for the reality that is a ‘Trump future’ following the endorsement of the current GOP frontrunner by New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie. As White House Chief of Staff, Gingrich would be one of the primary links between the Oval Office and Congress. Gingrich is also said to be giving Trump advice on potential picks for Vice President.” [88485]

The National Inflation Association writes, “If Hillary Clinton were to be elected President, we will undoubtedly see Larry Summers become a major part of her administration.” Summers advocates the elimination of the $50 and $100 bills as a way of “‘standing up against big money’ for the benefit of ‘ordinary citizens.’ We are beginning to see a global war against cash, under the disguise of it preventing terrorism and making the world a safer place.” Of course, eliminating currency and requiring that almost all transactions become electronic makes it “much

116 easier to thoroughly monitor the everyday activities of all U.S. citizens—the exact opposite of what Summers suggests.” In addition, “a global ban of ‘high denomination’ banknotes would make it easier to force depositors into paying interest to banks for the ‘privilege’ of holding onto their cash. Negative interest rates are a desperate, last-ditch effort to increase the velocity of money and make price inflation explode—while reinflating the currently bursting global stock market bubble.” [88501]

“If Donald Trump were to be elected President, he has already suggested Carl Icahn as one of his top choices for Treasury Secretary. Interestingly, Icahn is a large shareholder in Apple and is likely taking a major financial hit from Trump’s call to boycott the company. Although we disagree with Trump’s call to boycott Apple, we do believe that Icahn would be the perfect nominee for Treasury Secretary. …Icahn fully understands that America’s biggest problem is the Fed fueled bubbles created by manipulating interest rates to artificially low levels—and how only real fiscal reform from within Washington can truly stimulate the economy. He is perhaps more experienced than anyone on how share buybacks and other forms of financial engineering have been responsible for nearly all corporate earnings growth since the 2008/2009 financial crisis.” [88501]

“Donald Trump is by no means a libertarian like Ron Paul, who we supported in the last Presidential election—but he is truly the first chance America has had in decades to elect a real President who isn’t controlled by the establishment elite. When you look at just how badly the mainstream media has desperately tried to discredit Trump while elevating the campaign of Marco Rubio—a puppet, pretty boy version of Jeb Bush—who is controlled by the very same people—it really tells us everything we need to know about who to support. Donald Trump understands fully that hyperinflation will be the inevitable outcome of America’s debt crisis, which is why he is bullish on gold—and has even begun accepting deposits from tenants in gold bullion.” [88501]

A newly-released email dated September 14, 2012 about “messaging on the attacks in Libya” is further evidence that the Obama administration knew the attack in Benghazi just two days earlier had nothing to do with a YouTube video. The from and to addresses of the email are not revealed. The text reads: “Colleagues, I mentioned to [name deleted] this morning, and want to share with all of you, our view at Embassy Tripoli that we must be cautious in our local messaging with regard to the inflammatory film trailer, adapting it to Libyan conditions. Our monitoring of the Libyan media and conversations with Libyans suggest that the films [sic; film’s or film is] not as explosive of an issue [sic; explosive an issue] here as it appears to be in other countries in the region [such as Egypt]. The overwhelming majority of the FB [Facebook] comments and tweets we’ve received from Libyans since the Ambassador’s [Christopher Stevens’] death have expressed deep sympathy, sorrow, and regret. They have expressed anger at the attackers, and emphasized that the attack does not represent Libya or Libyans. Relatively few have even mentioned the inflammatory video. So if we post messaging about the video specifically, we may draw unwanted attention to it. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more terrorist attack than a protest which escalated into violence. It is our opinion that in our messaging, we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well-planned attack by militant extremists. I have discussed this with [name deleted] and he shares PAS’s [?] view.” [88504]

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Although the from/to names are not disclosed, it is clear that the message came from an American diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. Just three days after September 11, the diplomat was making it clear that the Benghazi deaths were the result of an intentional terrorist attack and not a protest that had gotten out of hand. Yet for many days afterward, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, and then-press secretary Jay Carney were still repeating the “it was a video” lie. Pamela Geller writes, “Treason quietly released in the Friday night news dump. While our Ambassador and other embassy personnel were being slaughtered by a jihad army, Obama and Hillary were furiously spinning a sharia narrative to cover for the jihad murderers. Obama and Hillary, jihad accomplices. Not once, not twice but three times, the Democrats—the party of treason—have nominated (and twice elected) a traitor and America-hater.” [88504]

Bill Clinton campaigns on behalf of his wife in Bluffton, South Carolina and is confronted by a U.S Marine who brings up Benghazi: “The thing is, we had four lives in Benghazi killed and your wife tried to cover it up.” After some back and forth, Clinton tells the Marine, “Do you have the courage to listen to my answer? Don’t throw him out. Shut up and listen to my answer. I’ll answer it.” The man is then removed from the audience. A woman confronts Clinton, saying that “Hillary lied over four coffins. She lied and she lied to those families. So all those families are liars?” (Clinton supporters who think the issue is going away are mistaken. It will follow Hillary Clinton all the way to election day if she is the Democrat nominee.) [88513, 88516, 88542, 88543, 88565, 88566]

Rick Moran reports at AmericanThinker.com that, according to Congressman Devin Nunes (R- CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, “files and emails at Central Command headquarters that dealt with intel analysis of ISIS were deleted. CENTCOM is currently embroiled in a scandal involving superior officers skewing the intelligence provided by analysts. Forty percent of analysts at headquarters claim that officers altered intel to make it appear that the Obama administration was having more success in fighting ISIS than was actually the case. …The question for Congress is, were senior commanders who tried to manipulate the intelligence taking orders from the White House? A direct link will be hard to find, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It could be that some of these officers were playing headquarters games, giving their superiors in Washington what they thought they wanted. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened. But if that’s what happened, it should be fairly easy to follow the chain of intelligence to see where the alterations occurred and under whose authority. Now that the intel committee has discovered deleted files and emails, that may make it harder to track.” [88505]

In a national NBC News/Survey Monkey poll of registered voters conducted February 24-25, Donald Trump leads Marco Rubio 39-21 percent. Ted Cruz follows with 19, while Ben Carson and John Kasich each garner 8 percent. [88518]

PBS broadcasts a White House tribute to Ray Charles. [88537]

On February 27 AmericanCommitment.org’s Phil Kerpen, noting an email to Hillary Clinton about the U.S Trade and Development Agency to which she responded, “I didn’t even know this agency existed!”, observes, “Maybe government is too big?” [88519]

118

Marco Rubio repeats his “Trump is a con artist” charge repeatedly in a press conference in Kennesaw, Georgia. Rubio says, “As soon as he’s [Trump is] the nominee, they’re [journalists are] going to be descend on him like the hounds of hell and they’re going to tear him apart for all the horrible things he’s done in his business career. …He’s fooled a number of voters around the country into believing he is what he says he is. We are looking forward to examining his record. When this process is finished Donald Trump will not have the 1,237 delegates he needs to win.” (Rubio might want to get the process started before the March 1 primaries, after which it may be far too late for any other candidate to win enough delegates to win the nomination. Rubio should also consider that most of the voters may already know who Trump is and do not care one whit about his three marriages and his business failures.) [88520]

Rubio continues his taunts: “This a guy who inherited millions of dollars from his father. Had he put that money in an index stock market fund he would one of the richest person in the world. He would have had had more money than Warren Buffett. Instead he put that money on a bunch of risky business deals.” (Rubio’s economic ignorance is astounding. If everyone with money took Rubio’s advice there would be no job creation. Virtually all business deals are risky. If success were guaranteed everyone would start a business. By risking money in businesses, investors create jobs. Sometimes those businesses succeed and sometimes they fail. But the most successful investors do not let a few failures stop them. Investors who do are called failures.) [88520]

Rubio, who stands a good chance of not winning even one state on March 1, says, “The majority of Republican voters do not want Donald Trump to be the nominee. They’re going to support whoever is left standing that’s [sic; who is] fighting against him to ensure that we do not nominate a con artist to be the nominee of the Republican Party in very important election fight.” (Based on the results of the first four caucuses and primaries, fewer voters want Rubio to be the nominee than Trump.) [88520]

InfoWars.com—which, it should be noted, is not the most reliable web site—reports, “Insiders who were at a recent meeting between the Koch Bros. [millionaires Charles and David Koch] and Marco Rubio leaked intel on how exactly they’re going to try and steal the election from Donald Trump, GOP strategist Roger Stone revealed. The Koch Bros. met with GOP millionaires and billionaires Thursday night to pool together over $75 million to stop Trump and are going to use Mitt Romney as ‘Plan B’ if Rubio fails to gain traction on Super Tuesday, according to moles who were inside the meeting. ‘$75 million to stop Trump and $25 million to Marco Rubio, but they gave Rubio a condition: he’s got to win the Florida primary or he’s out and Mitt Romney’s in,’ Stone revealed. ‘That’s the plan.’ ‘First they’ll ramp up an enormous, negative campaign on TV against Trump and they’re going to hit this phony Trump University issue,’ he continued. ‘They claim to have personal dirt on Trump—I doubt that—and they are also going to try and delve into his business affairs, but if Rubio fails to grab the Florida primary, then Rubio’s out and Mitt Romney’s in.’” [88522, 88541, 88546, 88617]

“‘The plan is for Romney to file for the New Jersey, New York and California primaries in an all-out ditch effort to stop Donald Trump…’ Additionally, Marco Rubio’s wife called Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, to desperately beg Cruz to exit the race and aid Rubio, but Heidi said no, Stone said.

119

‘The power structure’s desperate, the Rubio and Cruz teams are going back and forth but they can’t agree as to who will be the candidate,’ he added. ‘I still believe Mitt Romney is totally dressed up, already made up, waiting in the wings… to step in as the last, best hope of the ‘stop Trump’ movement, and frankly I think Trump will bulldoze him as well.’” [88522, 88541, 88546]

The filing deadline for the Republican primary in California is March 26. The New Jersey filing deadline is April 4. Mitt Romney could conceivably file in those states and appear on the ballot. But the New York deadline is February 4. Romney’s name cannot therefore appear on the New York primary ballot. The filing deadlines in most states have already passed. There is no doubt that the “establishment” hates and fears Trump and would like an “escape clause” if Marco Rubio cannot defeat him. Rubio is unlikely to win Florida (in fact, he may not win any state), but it is simply impossible for Romney to get on enough ballots to give him the delegates needed to win the nomination. If the establishment attempts to somehow block Trump at the convention with last-minute rule changes and dirty tricks and give the nomination to Rubio or Romney, all Hell will break loose—and the Republican Party will have destroyed itself. [88523]

NYTimes.com writes, “While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-KY] has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the possibility of treating Mr. Trump’s loss as a given and describing a Republican Senate to voters as a necessary check on a President Hillary Clinton… Of Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell has said, ‘We’ll drop him like a hot rock,’ according to his colleagues.” (In other words, McConnell not only expects Hillary Clinton to win the election, he prefers her to Trump. The Senate Majority Leader suggesting that senators run campaign ads against their own nominee explains the “establishment” in a nutshell. McConnell is grossly mistaken. If Trump is the Republican nominee it will be because he steamrolled past Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. There will be many reasons to believe he can steamroll past Hillary Clinton, and no sitting senator up for reelection will run ads against Trump. The anti-Trump tide will turn on a dime if he wins big in the March 1 primaries.) [88527, 88540]

In a WBUR poll in Massachusetts, Donald Trump leads with 40 percent. He is followed by Marco Rubio (19), John Kasich (19), Ted Cruz (10), and Ben Carson (5). On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 49-44. [88525]

Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer endorses Donald Trump. She states, “For years I pleaded with the federal government to secure our borders. Donald Trump will get the job done!” [88538]

Ohio Governor John Kasich tells reporters, “I will beat Donald Trump in Ohio, and that will be the beginning of a new day. Some of the other candidates, if they can’t win their home state, they [have] got to get out [of the presidential race], okay? If I don’t win my home state, I'll get out. But you know what? I’m going to win Ohio [on March 15].” [88544]

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Hillary Clinton easily defeats Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina primary, winning 86 percent of the black vote; 61 percent of the state’s voters in the Democrat primary are black. Sanders wins the age 17-29 group and the white male vote. In a shot at her anticipated rival, Donald Trump, Clinton says, “We don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great.” (Clinton will, of course, win a majority of the black votes in November. But if Trump is the Republican nominee he may surprise pundits by attracting a substantial number of non-voters—including many blacks who rarely go to the polls. In January, Herman Cain told Fox & Friends that he gets callers to his radio program who say, “‘I am black, I am female, and I’m going from Democrat to Trump.’ They didn’t say there were going from Democrat to Republican; they’re going from Democrat to Trump. I think that’s part of the phenomenon.”) [88524, 88535, 88536, 88550, 88553]

On February 28 Donald Trump is asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about an endorsement from Donald Duke, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. (He left the organization in 1980.) Trump responds, “Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, okay? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. Did he endorse me, or what’s going on?” On February 26 Trump responded to a similar question the same way: “I didn’t even know. I disavow it, okay?” (In fact, Trump reconsidered a presidential run as a Reform Party candidate in 2000 after he learned that Duke was in the party. He told The New York Times , “The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. [Pat] Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. [Lenora] Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep.”) Trump is immediately criticized for his remarks. (The media will likely not mention that in 2010 Obama delivered the eulogy for Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a former official in the Ku Klux Klan.) [88545, 88564, 88601, 88602]

Trump is also asked about his loyalty pledge not to run as a third-party candidate and to support the eventual Republican nominee. He responds, “The pledge is a two-way street, and if it’s not that way you’re gonna [sic] have a problem, you’ll have a big problem with me. We have tremendous amounts of people. …If they want to play that game I can play it much better than they can, and I have a lot more people than they do.” (While the GOP establishment had demanded that Trump sign a pledge, it has been shamelessly working to stop Trump—with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell going so far as to say he will be dropped “like a hot rock.” The party “elites” would clearly prefer a Hillary Clinton victory in November, because they fear Trump will upset their apple carts, putting an end to cheap illegal immigrant labor, and stopping their wars and profligate spending.) [88552, 88556]

Ted Cruz again calls on Donald Trump to release his tax returns; ThePostEmail.com calls on Cruz to release proof of U.S. citizenship. Cruz, desperately throwing things against the wall to see what might stick, has suggested that Trump is hiding “mob ties” in his tax returns. (Cruz is apparently hoping that someone will provide evidence of Trump dealings with mob-connected construction companies and labor unions. The reality is that many of the labor unions in the New York City area have mob ties. In fact, it is probably next to impossible to build anything there without having had some contact with shady unions and companies.) [88551]

Trump is criticized by NBC’s Huck Todd for re-tweeting the following: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”—which Trump critics falsely claim was a statement

121 made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Trump responds, “It’s a very good quote. I didn’t know who said it, but what difference does it make if it was Mussolini or somebody else—it’s a very good quote. …Hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?” [88573, 88591]

According to Justin Raimondo at Original.Antiwar.com, “On June 14, 1918, a nineteen year old Italian soldier by the name of Bernardo Vicario was ordered by his commander, Carl Rigoli, to carry out a curious task. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Italian forces would soon be hit with a furious bombardment that would mean the death of most of them. Rigoli clearly knew this, which is why he told young Bernardo to write an inscription on the ruined wall of a home in the village of Fagare, where they were holed up: ‘Better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep.’” Trump’s refusal to disown the quote, “and the content of the quote itself, underscores and explains why he is winning and why the hysterical smear campaign directed at him and his campaign is failing big-time.” [88591]

Raimondo writes, “…Trump challenges every major new American incursion into regions where it doesn’t belong: Syria, where he wonders why we’re subsidizing ‘rebels’ and ‘we don’t’ know who they are’; Ukraine, which he disdains as simply a backwater where we have no interests; and Libya, where he points to the chaos caused by Hillary’s war and where we’re getting ready to revisit. Trump represents a deadly challenge to the high command of the War Party—the neoconservatives who lied us into war in Iraq—and were called out for it by him. These people are the main driving force that is ideologically committed to maintaining Washington’s imperial pretensions even as we plunge further into bankruptcy. They are behind the vicious smear campaign that equates Trump with Mussolini, Hitler, David Duke, and the Devil himself. They see that they are losing control of the GOP—their pathway to power—and they are reacting like the cornered rats they are.” [88591]

“If Trump gets the Republican nomination the neocons are through as a viable political force on the Right. That’s why National Review devoted a whole issue of their magazine to the theme ‘Against Trump.’ That’s why the neocons’ allies in the media are going after him hammer and tongs. That’s why neocons like Robert Kagan are openly declaring they will support Hillary Clinton, while others—including the formerly libertarian network of organizations funded by Charles and David Koch—are financing a ‘Stop Trump’ campaign. There is even talk of the (impractical) idea of running a third party candidate in order to take votes away from Trump.” [88591]

“The rats are converging, squealing up a storm of abuse, and resorting to the most obvious smear tactics in order to keep their bread-and-butter on the table. Yet this, too, will backfire, just as all the other attempts to stop Trump have flopped—because people have had enough. They are beyond angry—indeed, they’re happy! Overjoyed by the sight of the political class on the run— and determined to make them run even faster. I hear Trump wears a bullet-proof vest, and has done so for years. If I were him I’d guard my head—and watch my back.” [88591]

“If Trump secures the nomination, the way is paved for transforming the GOP from the party of perpetual war to the party that honors the long-forgotten ‘isolationist’ Sen. Robert A. Taft, who used to be celebrated as ‘Mr. Republican.’ And if Trump actually wins the White House, the military-industrial complex is finished, along with the globalists who dominate foreign policy

122 circles in Washington. While Trump is no libertarian, the effect of this sea-change in the foreign policy realm will be to objectively cut the dominance of federal power in our lives, first of all by saving us from bankruptcy and freeing up resources for the private sector, and secondly by reducing the blowback that has empowered terrorists. Don’t be fooled: GOP bigwigs aren’t afraid Trump will lose to Hillary. They’re afraid he’ll win.” [88591]

On Sunday Morning Futures , former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Maria Bartiromo, “I thought it was very impressive both that Chris Christie endorsed him and the way he endorsed him and the things he said… I think it’s actually healthy to go for another couple of weeks but all this talk about stop Trump, Super PACs and all out assaults on Trump’s character, and so, these are nonsense. Governor [Paul] LePage of Maine… has now also endorsed Donald Trump. And I think what I tells you is—these are both northeastern governors. So this is not a right-left kind of fight in the traditional sense. This is about people who want to dramatically change Washington and who are willing to go with somebody who’s very, very different.” [88554]

On New York’s AM 970, Steve Forbes says union leaders will support Hillary Clinton, but “the rank and file, a big chunk of them are going to go their own way. …Trump, even as he criticizes and throws out charges and all that kind of thing, he always ends up on an upbeat note about the USA. People want that, people want to hear that. They’re tired of all this gloom and doom, and ‘the U.S. is going in a trash heap.’” Forbes calls Marco Rubio’s tax plan “the worst” of the Republican candidates’ proposals. [88558]

On Meet the Press , Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) announces she is resigning her position as vice chairwoman of the Democrat National Committee to support Bernie Sanders for president. She says, “I think it’s most important for us, as we look at our choices as to who our next commander in chief will be, is [sic] to recognize the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, who exercises good judgment, who looks beyond the consequences, looks at the consequences of the actions they’re looking to take, before they take those actions, so we don’t continue to find ourselves in these failures that have resulted in chaos in the Middle East and so much loss of life.” [88562, 88567]

More than 30,000 people attend a Trump rally in Huntsville, Alabama, where the candidate is endorsed by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Sessions (whose endorsement Ted Cruz had expected to receive) says, “There is an opportunity this year, Tuesday, and we have the opportunity—we have an opportunity Tuesday. It may be the last opportunity we have for the people’s voice to be heard. You have asked for 30 years, and politicians have promised for 30 years to fix illegal immigration. The American people have known for years these trade agreements have not been working for them. We now have and will soon have a vote on the Transpacific Partnership, Obamatrade, and it will damage America. It will create a commission that undermines our sovereignty, and it should not pass. Donald Trump when he gets elected president will see it does not pass. This movement, he doesn’t take money from political groups and lobbyists. He is committed to leading this country in an effective way. You know, nobody is perfect. We can’t have everything, can we, Mr. Trump? But I can tell you one thing, I think at this time in my opinion, my best judgment, at this time in America’s history, we need to make America great again! I am pleased to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States. We are in

123 a movement that must not fade away. The bosses are you. The people in Washington are public servants and they serve you.” [88548, 88555]

Trump is endorsed by Benghazi security contractors Mark “Oz” Geist and John “Tig” Tiegen. [88549]

NYPost.com writes, “Confidential polling data shows Hillary Clinton could lose the presidential election in heavily Democratic New York to Donald Trump as the GOP front-runner’s support grows to the point of being ‘surprisingly strong,’ The Post has learned.

The poll results, from Democratic and Republican legislative races, have surprised many leading Dems, virtually all of whom have endorsed Clinton, while confounding and energizing GOP leaders, many of whom until recently have been opposed to Trump. ‘There are some Democrats who think that Hillary can be taken if Trump mounts a strong campaign,’ one of the state’s most prominent Democrats said. …The new polls, a second source said, showed Trump’s support… was ‘surprisingly strong’ in Westchester and on Long Island, the key suburbs often viewed as crucial swing bellwethers on how statewide elections will turn out. The polls found that Clinton often had higher negative ratings with voters than did the more controversial Trump, whose inflammatory pronouncements have often angered and even horrified many of his fellow Republicans.” (New York has 29 electoral votes, more than 10 percent of 270 needed to win the election. It is normally a Democrat stronghold—Obama beat Mitt Romney 63-35 in 2012—but if Trump wins the nomination and then New York in November, he will be in the White House in January.) [88569]

According to TheGatewayPundit.com, lawsuit challenging Ted Cruz’s right to run for and serve as president have been “filed in Florida, Vermont, Texas, Utah, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, New York, and Pennsylvania, and individuals who raised a ballot challenge in Indiana are weighing whether they’ll file suit. Cruz has a new IL court date March 1st—Super Tuesday, a filing deadline on March 2nd for the AR case after his requested extension was granted, and a joint court date with one Senator Marco Rubio on March 4th in Rubio’s home state of Florida.” (Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father; Rubio was born in Florida while his parents were still Cuban citizens.) [88577, 88583]

On February 29 Morning Consult releases its February 26-27 national poll of registered voters. Donald Trump leads with 44 percent (up 2 points since the prior poll); Marco Rubio has 14 percent (down 5); Ted Cruz had 15 (up 1); Ben Carson is unchanged at 9 percent; and John Kasich is unchanged at 5 percent. On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton has 15 percent (up 1) and Bernie Sanders is unchanged at 35 percent. [88559]

In a Quinnipiac poll in Florida, Trump leads Rubio 44-28. Cruz has 12 percent; Kasich has 7; Ben Carson has 4. [88563]

In a February 24-27 CNN/ORC national poll, the GOP numbers are: Trump, 49 (up 8 from the January poll); Rubio, 16 (up 8); Cruz, 15 (down 4); Carson, 10 (up 4); Kasich, 6 (up 5). Among Democrats, Clinton leads Sanders 55-38. “Trump is widely viewed as the candidate in the field who would be most effective at solving the country’s problems, 51% vs. 17% for Cruz, 13% for

124

Rubio and 10% for Carson, and as being best able to handle the responsibilities of being commander-in-chief, 48% say so, compared with 17% for Cruz and 15% for Rubio. The billionaire is also seen as the one who best understands the problems facing people like you, 46% Trump vs. 18% Cruz and 15% Rubio. As accusations of dishonesty have flown between Trump, Cruz and Rubio, voters say they are more apt to see Trump as honest and trustworthy. Asked who of the five candidates is most honest and trustworthy, 35% name Trump, 22% Carson—who has largely stayed out of the mudslinging—14% Cruz and 13% Rubio. [88568, 88579]

Attorney Mario Apuzzo ( Kerchner v. Obama ) responds to radio talk show host Mark Levin’s offer to “debate any so-called legal scholar, professor, serious commentator or candidate on this particular issue [the meaning of the term natural born citizen] on the air. (Whether Levin has the courage to debate Apuzzo on the air remains to be seen.) [88581, 88622]

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) calls for the release of a recording of a January 5 off-the-record conversation between Donald Trump and The New York Times editorial board. According to Newsmax.com, Trump allegedly told the board “he is using the language of deporting 11 million illegal immigrants and building a border wall as bargaining chips in negotiations.” Why Cruz or anyone else believes such information will harm Trump is not clear, as anyone with a modicum of intelligence understands that has been Trump’s plan all along: to demand as much as possible and still get most of what he wants through negotiations. Only a fool would believe that 11-20 million illegal immigrants would be deported. But building a more secure border wall and deporting a few hundred thousand people would send a signal to foreigners not to bother trying to enter the United States. (If nothing else, the story proves that The New York Times cannot be trusted to keep off-the-record remarks off the record. That not only harms what little is left of the Times’ integrity, it means the newspaper will also be allowed fewer off-the-record conversations.) [88582, 88605, 88607]

In fact, Trump has already made public statements that Cruz now suggests are somehow damaging. At WashingtonExaminer.com Byron York notes that in his January 12 interview with Trump the candidate said, on the record, “I’m not saying there can’t be some give and take, but at some point we have to look at these things. You look at the radical Islamic terrorism and you look at what’s going on, we have to take a serious look. There’s tremendous hatred. You look at illegal immigration and all that’s taking place with respect to illegal immigration, whether it’s the crime or the economy, I mean, it affects many different elements. It doesn’t mean I’m hard and fast 100 percent, but we have to get a lot of what I’m asking for, or we’re not going to have a country any more. …They are very strong positions. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to negotiate a little bit, but I guess there will always be some negotiation. But they are very strong positions, and I would adhere to those positions very strongly. That doesn’t mean that at some point we won’t talk a little bit about some negotiation. Who wouldn’t do that?” [88603]

Later on Hannity , Trump confirms his January 5 discussion with The New York Times , and says, “It was off the record. All of a sudden, they leak it. It’s all the over the place. They said, oh you’re, that you’re—it’s negotiable on the law. By the way, it is negotiable. Things are negotiable. I’ll be honest with you. You know, I’ll make the [border] wall two feet shorter or something. I mean, everything’s negotiable. [But] building it? Not negotiable.” [88613]

125

BostonHerald.com reports, “Nearly 20,000 Bay State [Massachusetts] Democrats have fled the party this winter, with thousands doing so to join the Republican ranks, according to the state’s top elections official. Secretary of State William Galvin said more than 16,300 Democrats have shed their party affiliation and become independent voters since Jan. 1, while nearly 3,500 more shifted to the MassGOP ahead of tomorrow’s ‘Super Tuesday’ presidential primary. …The primary reason? Galvin said his ‘guess’ is simple: ‘The Trump phenomenon,’ a reference to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, who polls show enjoying a massive lead over rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others among Massachusetts Republican voters. …Galvin said the state could see as many as 700,000 voting in tomorrow’s Republican primary, a significant number given just 468,000 people are actually registered Republicans. In Massachusetts, unenrolled— otherwise known as independent—voters can cast a ballot in the primary of any party.” (In 2012 Obama won 1.92 million votes in Massachusetts to Mitt Romney’s 1.18 million.) [88571, 88572, 88606]

CNSNews.com reports that, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, “In the 85 years for which BEA has calculated the annual change in real GDP there is only one ten-year stretch— 2006 through 2015—when the annual growth in real GDP never hit 3 percent. …The last recession ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. In the six full calendar years since then (2010-2015), real annual GDP growth has never exceeded the 2.5 percent it hit in 2010.” [88570]

In Idomeni, Greece, thousands of Muslim refugees break down a barrier and enter Macedonia, shouting “Allahu akbar!” [88574, 88587, 88596]

WND.com’s Cheryl Chumley reports, “Police in Russia arrested a woman who pulled out a female child’s severed head from her bag and brandished it in front of a crowd of shocked Moscow metro station passersby, while shouting—according to one media outlet—‘Allahu Akbar.’” (The woman later says in her defense, “It was what Allah ordered.”) [88589, 88592, 88593, 88677]

Meanwhile, Obama wants an increase in the number of Syrian refugees to be allowed into the United States. [88594, 88595]

At FoxNews.com Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report that senior Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills “has maintained her top secret security clearance despite sending information now deemed classified to the Clinton Foundation and to then-Secretary of State Clinton's private unsecured email account, according to congressional letters obtained by Fox News. Current and former intelligence officials say it is standard practice to suspend a clearance pending the outcome of an investigation. Yet in the case of Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff at the State Department, two letters indicate this practice is not being followed—even as the Clinton email system remains the subject of an FBI investigation. …Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom who has 46 years combined service, told Fox News his current and former colleagues are deeply concerned a double standard is at play. ‘Had this happened to someone serving in the government, their clearance would have already been pulled, and certainly they would be under investigation. And depending on the level of disclosure, it’s entirely possible

126 they would be under pretrial confinement for that matter,’ Maguire explained. ‘There is a feeling the administration may want to sweep this under the rug.’” [88575]

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach endorses Donald Trump. Kobach states, “For me, the most important issue in the Republican presidential contest is immigration and its effect on our national security. On that issue Mr. Trump stands head and shoulders above the other candidates. He has made it clear that ramping up the enforcement of our immigration laws will be his top priority, and he has forcefully rejected the notion of giving amnesty to illegal aliens living in the United States. …We have the ability to shut down the flow of remittances to Mexico from illegal aliens working in the United States [via a provision in the Patriot Act]. Mexico will then have to make a choice: Either make a single payment of $5 billion to $10 billion to the United States to pay for the wall, or lose most of the $23 billion in remittances that Mexico receives every year from its nationals working illegally in the United States. …Now, more than ever, America needs Mr. Trump’s aggressive approach to the problem of illegal immigration.” [88579]

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and former Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), a close friend of Obama, endorse Marco Rubio—even though both strongly objected to Rubio’s “gang of eight” comprehensive immigration legislation. [88598]

NASCAR, Inc. endorses Donald Trump. [88600]

MSNBC host Tamron Hall and guest David Corn, desperately trying to portray Donald Trump as a racist, get caught off-guard when a video is shown of a Trump supporter named Frank Vick—a black man—who says, “David Duke and people like that, they come out from under the rocks all the time around this time… It’s got nothing to do with Donald Trump. I think we need to stop with all the racist stuff and all the race-baiting …We’re all Americans. Nobody’s paying David Duke no mind.” A sputtering Hall says, “Um, clearly, [laughs], uh, let me just be clear here. Obviously the majority of Donald Trump’s supporters are not African American. I don’t know how many African Americans were in that, that building, but that is one, uh, person that [sic; who], uh, we have chosen to cut that sound from, uh, David.” (For the record, the majority of supporters of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, are not black either.) [88604]

An unhinged NationalReview.com calls Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) a “prostitute” for endorsing Donald Trump—and adds Maine Governor Paul LePage, former Arizona governor Jan Brewer, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, and Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Chris Collins (R-NY). [88611, 88612]

Donald Trump holds a massive campaign rally in Valdosta, Georgia. Attendee Thomas Ertl, a home builder in Tallahassee, Florida, later describes the event: “I was not prepared for what I was to see. I have followed presidential races since 1964, in the days of Johnson and Goldwater, and I must say I have never seen anything like what I witnessed at the Valdosta Trump rally. 8,000 south Georgians were packed into a 5,000 seat arena two hours before the time Trump was scheduled to speak. Another 12,000 were outside and could not get in. For two hours, I was watching a new wave of American political history as it flowed through this state, a populist insurrection. It is a movement fueled by the indignation and frustration of middle class people

127 against the established ruling order, a movement that has found its mouthpiece in the newly ordained political persona of Donald J. Trump. …After several decades of failed representation and disillusionment, the people see in Trump a political candidate who finally appears to be willing to represent them and take their values to Washington. Here is a man who gives them some hope for the representation of their 30, 40, 50 years of built-up frustration against America’s political class and their tearing down of this once great nation.” [89368]

With the final batch of Hillary Clinton emails (supposedly) released, the totals, according to the Republican National Committee, are as follows:

2,075: Total number of emails found to contain classified material. 22: Total number of emails found to contain material classified as “top secret.” 44: Total number of emails found to contain material classified as “secret.” 1,478: Total number of emails found to contain classified “foreign government information.” 28: Total number of emails found to contain classified information on “intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology.” 4: Total number of emails found to contain classified information on “vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, infrastructures, projects, plans, or protection services relating to the national security.” 2,063: Total number of emails found to contain classified information on “foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources.” [88610]

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